A product for adsorbing one or more heavy metals from a liquid is disclosed. The product may comprise attapulgite that has been surface functionalized with a surface coating agent that includes one or more mercury affinity functional groups that chemically bond to the attapulgite surface, wherein the weight percentage of components of the product includes: 91-99 wt. % attapulgite and 1-9 wt. % surface coating agent that includes the one or more mercury affinity functional groups. The product has a surface area in the range of 115-145 m.sup.2/g as measured using the BET method. The heavy metal includes mercury and/or lead. Also disclosed is a method of producing the product and a method of adsorbing at least one heavy metal in a liquid using the product.

A method of fabricating a magnetically-controlled graphene-based micro-/nano-motor includes: (a) mixing FeCl.sub.3 crystal powder with deionized water to obtain a FeCl.sub.3 solution; (b) completely immersing a carbon-based microsphere in the FeCl.sub.3 solution; transferring the carbon-based microsphere from the FeCl.sub.3 solution followed by heating to allow crystallization of FeCl.sub.3 on the surface of the carbon-based microsphere to obtain a FeCl.sub.3-carbon-based microsphere; (c) heating the FeCl.sub.3-carbon-based microsphere in a vacuum chamber until there is no moisture in the vacuum chamber; continuously removing gas in the vacuum chamber and introducing oxygen; and treating the FeCl.sub.3-carbon-based microsphere with a laser in an oxygen-enriched environment to obtain the magnetically controlled graphene-based micro-/nano-motor. A magnetically-controlled graphene-based micro-/nano-motor is further provided.

Novel iron-phosphate nanoparticles have been synthesized here. These are less than 12 nanometers in dimension. They are deemed useful for remediation of heavy metals and radionuclides and can be applied to insitu remediation of contaminated soils and contaminated waters.

An adsorbent for wastewater treatment includes titanium hexametaphosphate; the titanium hexametaphosphate is mainly prepared from hexametaphosphate and titanium salt. The adsorbent is an aggregate of micron or nanometer particles, with a large surface area and a good adsorption performance. The adsorbent, as a wastewater treatment agent, may effectively remove thallium contaminants in various water bodies such as underground water, surface water, chemical wastewater and mine wastewater at a removal rate of 99.8%; and the adsorbent has a good removal capability for heavy metals in water such as cadmium, plumbum, copper, stibium, cesium and uranium. The adsorbent has a wide applicable PH value range, and especially has a good adsorption capacity, stability and heat resistance under acidic conditions.

In one aspect, composite particles are described herein. A composite particle comprises a substrate, composite metallic or metal oxide nanoparticles supported by the substrate and an amphiphilic or hydrophilic component associated with the substrate, wherein the composite metallic or metal oxide nanoparticles comprise iron and at least one additional transition metal.

The present invention covers a novel method for creating an adsorbent and the resulting novel adsorbent. The method may be used to remove pollutants/unwanted chemicals from water, air, other gases, biological fluids (such as blood, urine, lipids, protein fluids), and other fluids (such as fuel). The adsorbent may be used to remove heavy metals (for example, lead), organic pollutants, inorganic non-meal pollutants (for example, nitrates and bromates). Accordingly, the current invention has many applications including but not limited to water treatment, wastewater treatment, biomedical fluid treatments, gas cleanup, and fuel (oil, gas) cleanup.

Provided are hydrocolloid core-shell capsules including a liquid core including a non-crosslinked alginate solution and a solid or semi-solid shell including a hydrocolloid other than alginate crosslinked with metal ions, which do not crosslink alginate. Further provided is a method for the preparation of the liquid-core capsules including non-crosslinked alginate. The subject matter further provides the use of the capsules, inter alia, in the water treatment technology.

A cross-linked terpolymer (BSDF) obtained by polycondensation of bisphenol-S, formaldehyde and 1,6-diammohexane. The terpolymer is highly efficient in eliminating lead ions from aqueous solutions. The adsorption of lead ions on BSDF was studied under different conditions such as: pH, contact time and temperature. The adsorption kinetics fits Lagergren second order kinetic model that are in agreement with the low surface area as a chemisorption process. Applying BSDF on non-spiked and spiked real wastewater samples under optimum conditions revealed the high efficiency of BSDF in removing toxic metal ions.

The present invention pertains to a process for treating waste water from mining. The process involves contacting the mining waste water with an emulsion of a nano scale compound comprising iron, magnesium, or both. Mixing results in a substantially foam-like layer at the surface of the mixture which may be further oxidized to form treated water.

Disclosed herein are a method for analyzing heavy metal removal efficiency using phase difference analysis and an apparatus using the method. The method for analyzing heavy metal removal efficiency using phase difference analysis includes applying a magnetic field to a magnetite onto which a heavy metal is adsorbed, based on a first solenoid coil and a second solenoid coil that have an identical winding direction, applying a high-frequency signal to the magnetite, based on a third solenoid coil having a winding direction that differs from that of the first solenoid coil and the second solenoid coil, detecting a high-frequency signal transformed by the magnetite, and calculating a phase difference between a previously detected default high-frequency signal and the transformed high-frequency signal, and analyzing an efficiency of heavy metal removal by the magnetite by measuring a concentration of the heavy metal based on the phase difference.