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In response to environmental concerns at the global level, there is considerable momentum in the exploration of materials derived from waste that are both sustainable and eco-friendly. In this study, CS-Fe (carbon, silica, and iron) composite was synthesized from coal gasification slag (CGS) and innovatively applied as a catalyst to activate PS (persulfate) for the degradation of trichloroethylene (TCE) in water. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), fourier transmission infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), brunauer, emmet, and teller (BET) technique, and x-ray diffractometer (XRD) spectra were employed to investigate the surface morphology and physicochemical composition of the CS-Fe composite. CS-Fe catalyst showed a dual nature by adsorption and degradation of TCE simultaneously, displaying 86.1% TCE removal in 3 h. The synthesized CS-Fe had better adsorption (62.1%) than base material CGS (36.4%) due to a larger BET surface area (770.8 m 2  g -1 ), while 24.0% TCE degradation was recorded upon the activation of PS by CS-Fe. FTIR spectra confirmed the adsorption and degradation of TCE by investigating the used and fresh samples of CS-Fe catalyst. Scavengers and Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) analysis confirmed the availability of surface radicals and free radicals facilitated the degradation process. The acidic nature of the solution favored the degradation while the presence of bicarbonate ion (HCO 3 - ) hindered this process. In conclusion, these results for real groundwater, surfactant-added solution, and degradation of other TCE-like pollutants propose that the CS-Fe composite offers an economically viable and favorable catalyst in the remediation of organic contaminants within aqueous solutions. Further investigation into the catalytic potential of coal gasification slag-based carbon materials and their application in Fenton reactions is warranted to effectively address a range of environmental challenges., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest No conflict of interest exists in the submission of this manuscript, and the manuscript is approved by all authors for publication. And the authors confirm here that this manuscript has not been previously published in whole and it is not under consideration by any other journal., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Remediation and management of industrial wastewater (IWW) using hydrophytes act as one of the cost effective and environmentally friendly technologies. The present study was conducted to assess the role and efficiency of selected four hydrophyte species through constructed wetland (CW) for the removal of heavy metals (HMs) from IWW. Samples of wastewater (WW) were collected from the main drain of Hayatabad Industrial Estate (Peshawar, Pakistan) and analysed for HMs like cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu) and lead (Pb) along with basic physicochemical parameters like pH, electric conductivity (EC), total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), dissolved oxygen (DO), biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved organic carbon (DOC) through standard analytical methods. Four hydrophytes species such as Typha latifolia (cattail), Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth), Lemna gibba (duck weed) and Pistia stratiotes (water cabbage) were transplanted into CW (mix cultivation). Each selected species was also cultivated in individual pots for investigating their efficiency to remove HMs. The Cd, Cu and Pb removal efficiency of CW was recorded as 39.5%, 80.3% and 85.5%, respectively. The removal efficacy of hydrophyte species including cattail, water hyacinth, duck weed and water cabbage was 96.2%, 72.2%, 60.4% and 93.3%, respectively for Cd, while 83.6%, 82.3%, 90.0% and 81.7% for Cu and 95.9%, 78.0%, 91.3% and 97.1% for Pb, respectively. Findings of T-Test and One-Way ANOVA showed that the concentrations of Cd, Cu and Pb in IWW were significantly (P ≤ 0.01) reduced by the treatment of hydrophytes revealing the higher efficiency of CW and selected species used in this study. The HMs were removed in order of Pb > Cu > Cd. Most efficient removal for Cd was found by water cabbage, Cu by duck weed and Pb by water hyacinth. It was concluded that CW is one of the environmentally friendly and cost-effective technologies that can be used for the treatment of IWW due to the efficiency of hydrophytes species in terms of HMs removal., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)