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With the rising incidence of various diseases in China and the constant development of the pharmaceutical industry, there is a growing demand for floxacin-type antibiotics. Due to the large-scale production and high cost of waste treatment, the parent drug and its metabolites constantly enter the water environment through domestic sewage, production wastewater, and other pathways. In recent years, the pollution of the aquatic environment by floxacin has become increasingly serious, making the technology to degrade floxacin in the aquatic environment a research hotspot in the field of environmental science. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), as a new type of porous material, have attracted much attention in recent years. In this paper, four photocatalytic materials, MIL-53(Fe), NH2-MIL-53(Fe), MIL-100(Fe), and g-C3N4, were synthesised and applied to the study of the removal of ofloxacin and enrofloxacin. Among them, the MIL-100(Fe) material exhibited the best photocatalytic effect. The degradation efficiency of ofloxacin reached 95.1% after 3 h under visible light, while enrofloxacin was basically completely degraded. The effects of different materials on the visible photocatalytic degradation of the floxacin were investigated. Furthermore, the photocatalytic mechanism of enrofloxacin and ofloxacin was revealed by the use of three trappers (▪O2−, h+, and ▪OH), demonstrating that the role of ▪O2− promoted the degradation effect of the materials under photocatalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy shortage and environmental pollution have become the most serious problems faced by human beings in the 21st century. Looking for advanced clean energy technology to achieve sustainable development of the ecological environment has become a hot spot for researchers. Nitrogen-based substances represented by urea are environmental pollutants but ideal energy substances. The efficiency of urea-based energy conversion technology mainly depends on the choice of catalyst. The development of new catalysts for urea oxidation reaction (UOR) has important application value in the field of waste energy conversion and pollution remediation based on UOR. In this work, four metal–organic framework materials (MOFs) were synthesized using ultrasound (NiCo-UMOFs) and hydrothermal (NiCo-MOFs, Ni-MOFs and Co-MOFs) methods to testify the activity toward UOR. Materials prepared using the hydrothermal method mostly form large and unevenly stacked block structures, while material prepared using ultrasound forms a layer-by-layer two-dimensional and thinner structure. Electrochemical characterization shows NiCo-UMOFs has the best electrocatalytic performance with an onset potential of 0.32 V (vs. Ag/AgCl), a Tafel slope of 51 mV dec−1, and a current density of 13 mA cm−2 at 0.5 V in a 1 M KOH electrolyte with 0.7 M urea. A prolonged urea electrolysis test demonstrates that 45.4% of urea is removed after 24 h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As for the academics and policymakers, more attention has been given to the issue on how to reduce environmental pollution through the cooperation of environmental regulation and local officials' promotion incentives. With the use of a city-level panel data of 266 Chinese cities from 2005 to 2016, this study preliminary explores the impacts of environmental regulations, local officials' promotion incentives, and their interaction terms on urban environmental pollution at national and regional levels by using the spatial Durbin model. The results indicate that the impacts of environmental regulations and local officials' promotion incentives on urban environmental pollution have achieved the desired goal with the other's cooperation, and their interaction term's coefficients on urban environmental pollution are significantly negative. Moreover, spatial heterogeneity is established, and the uneven development of urban environmental pollution among different regions deserves more attention. In order to effectively reduce the level of urban environmental pollution in China, the government should focus on such solutions as enhancing the implementation and supervision efficiency of environmental regulation, optimizing the performance appraisal system of local officials, improving the synergistic effects of environmental regulations and local officials' promotion incentives, and establishing a multi-scale spatial cooperation mechanism based on both geographical and economic correlations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]