Publications associées à Comparative evaluation of polymer surface functionalization techniques before iron oxide deposition. Activity of the iron oxide-coated polymer films in the photo-assisted degradation of organic pollutants and inactivation of bacteria

Microstructure - Electrochemical Surface Reactivity Relationship of Electrochemically Grown Manganese Oxides Films

This Thesis provides a comprehensive and correlative investigation of the microstructure, chemical state, and electrochemical reactivity of manganese oxide (MnOx) films, aiming to gain a deeper understanding of the deposition and dissolution mechanism of M ...

EPFL2024

Photo-Fenton inactivation of MS2 bacteriophage at alkaline pH by Fe salts or nm to μm-sized oxides, and the Janus-faced effects of natural organic matter in surface waters

César Pulgarin, Stefanos Giannakis, Ogadimma Cassandra Oji-Okoro, Giulio Farinelli

In this study, MS2 bacteriophage was inactivated by homogeneous and heterogeneous photo-Fenton processes in an alkaline matrix (pH 8) using low concentrations of H2O2 and iron forms (1 mg/L), including Fe(II), Fe(III), and Fe (hydr)oxides. As a reference, ...

Elsevier2024

Oxidation processes and me

Urs von Gunten

This publication summarizes my journey in the field of chemical oxidation processes for water treatment over the last 30+ years. Initially, the efficiency of the application of chemical oxidants for micropollutant abatement was assessed by the abatement of ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2024

New Polymers from Biomass-Derived Hydroxycinnamic Acid Derivatives

Ghezae Tekleab

Polymers play a central role in shaping our world across various fields, but their heavy reliance on petrochemicals poses climate change, environmental and health risks. To address and alleviate these issues, transitioning to sustainable polymers, sourced ...

EPFL2024

The Mn(VII)-H2O2 oxidation process: Abatement of electron-deficient N-containing organic compounds

Urs von Gunten, Ke Xu

Chemical oxidants applied in water treatment are electrophiles, which preferentially attack sites with higher electron density. This typically results in less efficient oxidative abatement of organic compounds with electronwithdrawing substituents. In this ...

Elsevier Science Sa2024

Stability and degradation of (oxy)nitride photocatalysts for solar water splitting

Sophia Haussener, Franky Esteban Bedoya Lora

Advancing towards alternative technologies for the sustainable production of hydrogen is a necessity for the successful integration of this potentially green fuel in the future. Photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical water splitting are promising concepts ...

2024

Data-Intensive Exploration of the Photoelectrochemical Responses of Main-Group Metal Sulfides

Nicola Colonna

Materials that efficiently promote the thermodynamically uphill water-splitting reaction under solar illumination are essential for generating carbon-free ("green") hydrogen. Mapping out the combinatorial space of potential photocatalysts for this reaction ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Why five decades of massive research on heterogeneous photocatalysis, especially on TiO2, has not yet driven to water disinfection and detoxification applications? Critical review of drawbacks and challenges

César Pulgarin, Julian Andrés Rengifo Herrera

For fifty years, heterogeneous photocatalysis has been considered as having potential to remove organic and microbiological pollutants from water under either artificial UV light or sunlight irradiation. However, after tens of thousands of published resear ...

Elsevier Science Sa2023

Oxidative Water Treatment: The Track Ahead

Urs von Gunten, Yun Ho Lee

Chemical oxidation has been applied in municipal water treatment for more than a century, initially for disinfection. In the early decades, chlorine disinfection was adopted in the fight against waterborne disease. However, the oxidative properties of chlo ...

2023

Enhanced Leaching of Zinc Ferrite by the Formation of a Solid Solution With Magnetite in Hydrochloric Acid Solution

The high zinc and iron contents of electric arc furnace (EAF) dust in the forms of zinc ferrite (ZnFe2O4) and magnetite (Fe3O4) make it a valuable secondary source of these metals. ZnFe2O4 and Fe3O4 are known to form a solid solution at all compositions, a ...

SPRINGER2023

Sunshine and a pinch of tropical soils: A natural, low-cost photo-Fenton variation for safer water, assisted by H2O2 or percabonate

Michaël Bensimon, César Pulgarin, Stefanos Giannakis, Jérémie Decker, Thomas Guillaume

Clean water is essential for human survival, but access to safe drinking water remains a challenge in resource -limited regions. Herein, we explored a low-cost but effective solution for water potabilization using natural iron sources from soils along with ...

ELSEVIER2023

Predicting Transformation Products during Aqueous Oxidation Processes: Current State and Outlook

Urs von Gunten

Water quality and its impacts on human and ecosystem health presents tremendous global challenges. While oxidative water treatment can solve many of these problems related to hygiene and micropollutants, identifying and predicting transformation products f ...

2023

Periodate activation with copper oxide nanomaterials for the degradation of ciprofloxacin- A new insight into the efficiency and mechanisms

Shaoxian Li, Xi Zhang

In this study, CuO was synthesized using a facile precipitation method and was characterized using various techniques for the efficient activation of periodate (PI). Compared to systems consisting of PI alone (0.5 mM) and CuO alone (0.5 g/L), the CuO (0.5 ...

ELSEVIER SCI LTD2023

Supramolecular Modifications of Semicrystalline Polymers

Michael Alan Giffin

Supramolecular interactions play an important role in defining the structure and the resulting mechanical properties of materials. For instance, interchain hydrogen-bonding in PAs gives them superior strength and stiffness in engineering materials, while t ...

EPFL2023

Architecturally Diverse Polymer Brushes Prepared via Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization

Sabrina Sant

Polymer brushes, which are polymers anchored to a solid substrate by one chainend, have the ability to modify the properties of an underlying substrate, offering intriguing features such as enhanced lubrication, reduced friction, colloidal stability, and a ...

EPFL2023

Additive and digital manufacturing of transient sensors and bioelectronics

Nicolas Francis Fumeaux

Transient electronics have emerged as a promising class of devices, capable of breaking down without harmful side effects to their environment. They have tremendous potential as bioresorbable electronics for temporary applications in the human body, and as ...

EPFL2023

Simultaneous local sensing of two chemical properties with dual soft probe scanning electrochemical microscopy

Hubert Girault, Andreas Stephan Lesch, Gregorio Bonazza

A new method for the rapid and economic fabrication of dual soft microelectrodes for Soft-Probe-Scanning electrochemical microscopy (Soft-Probe-SECM) and their use for the simultaneous local detection of locally generated species is presented. The process ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2023

Phase Transformation-Induced Interfacial Debonding of Silica Inclusions in Iron

Andreas Mortensen, Alejandra Inés Slagter, David Hernandez Escobar, Julie Nathalie S Gheysen

We document that in unstressed, undeformed, samples of pure iron containing silica inclusions precipitated by melt deoxidation, the iron matrix and a small fraction of the silica inclusions are locally separated at room temperature by a void. Thermal cycli ...

Springer2023

Iron Reduction in Profundal Sediments of Ultraoligotrophic Lake Tahoe under Oxygen-Limited Conditions

Meret Aeppli

Increased periods of bottom water anoxia in deep temperate lakes due to decreasing frequency and depth of water column mixing in a warming climate may result in the reductive dissolution of iron minerals and increased flux of nutrients from the sediment in ...

2023

Bacterial inactivation in sunlit surface waters is dominated by reactive species that emanate from the synergy between light, iron, and natural organic matter

César Pulgarin, Stefanos Giannakis, Jun Ma, Da Wang, Shuang Song

In this study, the synergistic and antagonistic effects of Fe species and coexisting natural organic matter (NOM) on the efficacy of solar light disinfection of water are investigated. Different initial iron species (Fe2+/Fe3+) and naturalorganic matter ty ...

Elsevier2023