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International audience; The book presents recent remediation techniques for heavy metal contamination in wastewater, with a focus on recently-developed and sustainable materials such as metal oxides and their composites, two-dimensional materials, organic-inorganic ion exchange materials, nanomaterials, bagasse, and olive-oil waste chelating materials. Chapters also describe the analysis of heavy metals, membranes for water treatment, sources and impact of heavy metals and opportunities and challenges in heavy metal remediation.

International audience; In the context of climate change and fossil fuel pollution, solar energy appears as a cheap and sustainable fuel for many environmental applications, yet the efficiency of techniques has to be improved. This book reviews recent methods and applications of photocatalysis for the treatment of wastewater containing bacteria, heavy metals, organic pollutants, dyes and tannery effluents. Basics of water pollution, polluted river ecosystems and membranes are also detailed.

International audience; This book reviews advanced techniques for the determination of pesticide residues, with focus on extraction, detectors and cleaning protocols. Chapters also discuss pesticide occurrence, toxicity and remediation.

International audience; Wastewater pollution is a major issue in the context of the future circular economy because all matter should be ultimately reused, calling for efficient depollution techniques. This book present timely reviews on the treatment of wastewater contaminated by organic pollutants, with focus on aerobic granulation and degradation. Organic pollutants include microplastics, phthalates, humic acids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, pharmaceutical drugs and metabolites, plastics, oil spills, petroleum hydrocarbons, personal care products, tannery waste, dyes and pigments.

International audience; Pollution of waters by toxic metals is accelerating worldwide due to industrial and population growth, notably in countries having poor environmental laws, resulting in many diseases such as cancer. Classical remediation techniques are limited. This books reviews new, advanced or improved techniques for metal removal, such as hybrid treatments, nanotechnologies and unconventional adsorbents, e.g. metal-organic frameworks. Contaminants include rare earth elements, arsenic, lead, cadmium, chromium, copper and effluents from the electronic, textile, agricultural and pharmaceutical industries.

Using one-step wet-chemically synthesized ternary ZnO/CuO/Co3O4 nanoparticles (NPs), a sensitive chemical sensor was developed to detect melamine selectively using an electrochemical approach in a phosphate buffer solution. The calcined ZnO/CuO/Co3O4 NPs were investigated using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), ultraviolet visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). To fabricate the melamine sensor, a slurry of NPs in ethanol was deposited as a uniform thin layer on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The calibration curve of the proposed melamine sensor in the form of current versus concentration (in logarithmic scale) plot is found to be linear over a melamine concentration range of 0.05 nM–0.05 mM. The sensitivity of the sensor is very good (36.98 μA μM−1 cm−2) and the detection limit is very low (9.7 ± 0.5 pM). The melamine sensor with active ZnO/CuO/Co3O4 NPs shows good reliability, precise reproducibility and a short response time in sensing performances. The developed ternary metal oxide nanoparticle based sensor is a new introduction in sensor technology for determining melamine in environmental samples reliably.

International audience; This book will be a guiding path to understand the photocatalytic process and mechanism for the deterioration of heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants and pathogens from wastewater. Environmental remediation is of crucial importance in the context of human sustainability in the present and future times. The unplanned anthropogenic activities and revolutionary industrialization end up in environmental contamination with noxious organic-inorganic and biogenic pollutants. The photocatalytic disinfection and detoxification is the only solution to preserve and restore the ecological balance. The main emphasis is to explore and enhance the photocatalytic potentials of solar active-materials.

International audience; This book presents advanced techniques for wastewater treatment and the chapters review the environmental impact of water pollution, the analysis of water quality, and technologies for the preservation of water resources. Also outlined in this volume is the bioremediation of heavy metals, dyes, bisphenols, phthalates, cyanobacteria in contaminated water and wastewater. Another focus of this book is the use of natural remediation techniques such as bacterial biofilms and enzymes.

International audience; This book presents the catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide into various hydrocarbons and other products using photochemical, electrochemical and thermo-chemical processes. Products include formate, formic acid, alcohols, lower and higher hydrocarbons, gases such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide and syngas.

International audience; This book presents chemical and biological methods to convert carbon dioxide into various products such as methanol, ethanol, formic acid, formaldehyde, volatile organic compounds, syngas and polymers.

In the present work, sulfonated graphene oxide and sulfonated poly(1,4-phenylene ether-ether-sulfone) were blended with polyvinylidene fluoride to create a novel ionic polymer–metal composite actuator with enhanced performance. An ionic polymer–metal composite membrane in the protonated form was prepared by casting a composite blend of sulfonated poly(1,4-phenylene ether-ether-sulfone), polyvinylidene fluoride and sulfonated graphene oxide onto a plating of platinum metal as the electrode. The degree of sulfonation of poly(1,4-phenylene ether-ether-sulfone) was characterized using ion-exchange capacity measurements. Energy dispersive X-ray and transmittance electron microscopy analyses were carried out to analyze the chemical composition and detailed structure. Deposition of the platinum electrode and the surface morphology of the proposed ionic polymer–metal composite actuator were assessed using scanning electron microscopy analysis. The electrical properties were measured using cyclic voltammetry, linear sweep voltammetry and proton conductivity. These measurements confirmed the better actuation performance of the fabricated ionic polymer–metal composite actuator compared to other expensive ionic polymer-based actuators, in terms of its high ion-exchange capacity, good proton conductivity, high current density and large bending deflection. The robust, flexible and mechanically strong membrane actuator, fabricated via the synergistic combination of sulfonated poly(1,4-phenylene ether-ether-sulfone), polyvinylidene fluoride and sulfonated graphene oxide, has considerable potential as an actuator material for robotic, bio-mimetic and other applications.

A novel silver nano powder (Ag Pw) embedded kraton (KR) ionic polymer actuator was fabricated. The KR–Ag-Pw ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) membrane was prepared by a solution casting method. The IPMC membrane shows good electro-mechanical, ion exchange, water retention (WR) and proton conductivity (PC) properties which are responsible for the high performance of the ionic polymer actuator. The physicochemical properties of the KR–Ag-Pw ionic polymer actuator were determined using X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) studies. After applying a voltage (0–3.5 V DC), the maximum bending behaviour is achieved up to 17 mm. By constructing a multi KR–Ag-Pw IPMC finger based gripper, it is proved that this kind of actuator has potential in robotic applications.

This chapter reviews the state of the art of materials, technologies, characterizations, process and challenges concerning hybrid white light‐emitting diodes (LEDs). Here, for a “hybrid LED” we mean a device based on a layer of organic phosphors (or a mix of inorganic and organic ones) pumped by a high‐energy inorganic LED. Light is emitted by a frequency down‐conversion (sometimes simply named color‐conversion) process. Benefits and weak spots of this technology are investigated with a special attention for the materials involved into the process of frequency down‐conversion, in order to envisage the future impact of the hybrid lighting technology among the well‐established inorganic ones.