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The urgent need for technologies to ensure health standards, as per the Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations, has prompted research into addressing human health problems associated with chemical contaminants in air, water, and soil. Heavy metals, particularly arsenic, pose significant health risks, with millions of people worldwide exposed to concentrations exceeding recommended limits. Nanostructured materials, including ordered mesoporous substrates such as SBA-15, have shown promise for arsenic removal due to their high surface area and pore characteristics. This study aimed to synthesize a silica mesoporous material with reduced pore channel length to enhance surface area and active sites, thereby improving arsenic removal efficiency. By exploring various surfactant-to-silica precursor ratios, a suitable value was identified to promote the production of shortened SBA-15 particles. These shortened pore channels facilitated the dispersion of iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe2O3) on the SBA-15 surface, resulting in an effective adsorbent that achieved over 95% arsenic removal. The combination of the modified SBA-15 substrate and Fe2O3 nanoparticles demonstrated high efficiency in arsenic removal from aqueous effluents, offering a promising solution to address water pollution and associated health risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is focused on the study of cooling rate effects on the thermal, structural, and microstructural properties of hydroxyapatite (HAp) obtained from bovine bone. A three-step process was used to obtain BIO-HAp: hydrothermal, calcinations, and cooling. Calcined samples in a furnace and cooling in air (HAp-CAir), water (HAp-CW), and liquid nitrogen (HAp-CN2), as well as an air cooled sample inside the furnace (HAp-CFAir), were studied. According to this study, the low cooling rate that was achieved for air cooled samples inside the furnace produce single crystal BIO-HAp with better crystalline quality; other samples exhibited polycrystalline structures forming micron and submicron grains. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 104B: 339-344, 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]