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Lithium-ion battery (LiB) waste powder is a valuable source of various materials, including carbon and metals. Although this material exhibits electrical conductivity, nanostructured morphology, and may contain metal oxides, it has not been used as an electrocatalyst. Here, we demonstrated the application of LiB waste powder as a catalyst for electrochemical H2O2 generation. The powder was both immobilized on a glassy carbon (GC) electrode and assembled at a liquid–liquid interface formed by decamethylferrocene (DMFc) solution in trifluorotoluene and aqueous perchloric acid in the presence of oxygen. The electrochemistry was studied by cyclic voltammetry and also with a rotating disk electrode (RDE), and a 2-electron ORR pathway was confirmed. H2O2 generation at the liquid–liquid interface and oxidation of DMFc were detected by colorimetry, UV–vis spectroscopy and scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM). The use of LiB waste powder reduces the ORR onset potential by ca. 0.3 V compared to an unmodified GC. When assembled at a liquid–liquid interface the waste powder increases the efficiency of H2O2 generation by ca. 20 times.

Abstract The emergence of tolerance during Hymenoptera venom immunotherapy (VIT) is a complex process. The main goal of VIT is to induce a change from proinflammatory Th2 response to the Th1 response. However, the immune mechanism of acquiring rapid tolerance during VIT has not yet been fully understood. Therefore, we have analyzed (in 4-time points: 0, 2, 6, and 24 weeks after the initiation phase of VIT) the concentration of complement C3, C4, and C5 components, lymphocyte subpopulations (flow cytometry), as well as histamine and tryptase serum concentrations of 43 patients with wasp venom allergy (III and IV Müller grade) classified to ultra-rush treatment and 18 volunteers as the control group (CG). We observed that VIT affected the immune system by inducing changes in the complement system (decreased C3 and C4 compartment protein concentrations) and "normalized" the percentage of lymphocytes and neutrophils in the peripheral blood. Moreover, a significant increase in the percentage of nTreg in the blood of patients treated with VIT was observed. On the other hand, there were no changes in histamine or tryptase concentrations in the blood. Increased percentage of nTreg cells is a well-known mechanism by which VIT affects the immune system. Finally, VIT also modulated the concentrations of the complement components, which may be a previously unknown VIT mechanism of action.

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the waste management sector had to face new challenges, e.g., changes in the size and composition of the waste stream, or the presence of potentially infectious waste. This article is based on a case study in Poland. The data analysis showed that the increase in municipal waste mass during the pandemic did not differ from statistics observed in previous years and ranged from 0.3 to 0.5 million tons per year. Lifestyle changes caused a decrease in the amount of waste generated outside households. Social migrations contributed to rapid changes in the mass of waste generated in selected agglomerations by up to 80 kg/capita. In the waste stream, significant amounts of specific groups of waste related to the pandemic (“corona waste”) as well as packaging and food waste were noted. Despite the pandemic, in 2020, Poland recorded an increase in selective waste collection by 6.7 percentage points (pp.) Data on municipal waste management showed an increase in the mass of waste sent for recycling by 0.7 million tons, while the mass of landfilled waste decreased by 0.3 million tons. The observed positive changes in waste management allow the implementation of sustainable development assumptions to a greater extent.

The rapidly growing production and usage of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) dramatically raises the number of harmful wastes. Consequently, the LIBs waste management processes, taking into account reliability, efficiency, and sustainability criteria, became a hot issue in the context of environmental protection as well as the scarcity of metal resources. In this paper, we propose for the first time a functional material—a magnetorheological fluid (MRF) from the LIBs-based liquid waste containing heavy metal ions. At first, the spent battery waste powder was treated with acid-leaching, where the post-treatment acid-leaching solution (ALS) contained heavy metal ions including cobalt. Then, ALS was used during wet co-precipitation to obtain cobalt-doped superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) and as an effect, the harmful liquid waste was purified from cobalt. The obtained nanoparticles were characterized with SEM, TEM, XPS, and magnetometry. Subsequently, superparamagnetic nanoparticles sized 15 nm average in diameter and magnetization saturation of about 91 emu g−1 doped with Co were used to prepare the MRF that increases the viscosity by about 300% in the presence of the 100 mT magnetic fields. We propose a facile and cost-effective way to utilize harmful ALS waste and use them in the preparation of superparamagnetic particles to be used in the magnetorheological fluid. This work describes for the first time the second life of the battery waste in the MRF and a facile way to remove the harmful ingredients from the solutions obtained after the acid leaching of LIBs as an effective end-of-life option for hydrometallurgical waste utilization.

Global pollution of the environment is one of the most challenging environmental problems. Electronic-based population and anthropogenic activity are the main reasons for dramatically increasing the scale of waste generation, particularly battery waste. Improper battery waste disposal causes harmful environmental effects. Due to the release of heavy metals, battery waste affects ecosystems and health. We are faced with the challenge of effective battery waste management, especially recycling, to prevent the depletion of natural resources and maintain ecological balance. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is practically present in all areas of our lives. It enables the reduction of the costs associated with various types of research, increases automation, and accelerates productivity. This paper reviews the representative research progress of effective Artificial Intelligence-based battery waste management in the context of sustainable development, in particular, the analysis of current trends, algorithm accuracy, and data availability. Finally, the future lines of research and development directions of human-oriented Artificial Intelligence applications both in the battery production process and in battery waste management are discussed.

Reinforced concrete based on ordinary Portland cement (OPC) is one of the most commonly used materials in modern buildings. Due to the global growth of the building industry, concrete components have been partially or completely replaced with waste materials that can be used as binders or aggregates. Besides the ecological aspects, modern architecture widely needs materials to make the concrete durable, resisting large loads and various detrimental forces in the environment. This opens the possibilities of managing waste materials and applying them in practice. This paper presents a concise review of the green solutions for ecofriendly materials in the building industry that deal with the practical application of materials commonly treated as waste. The main emphasis was placed on their influence on the properties of the building material, optimal composition of mixtures, and discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of each of the “green” additives. It turned out that some solutions are far from being ecofriendly materials, as they leech and release numerous harmful chemicals into the environment during their presence in concrete. Finally, the paper suggests a research direction for the development of an ecofriendly structural material for a sustainable future.

The automotive industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the modern economy. Growing customer expectations, implementing solutions related to electromobility, and increasingly stringent legal restrictions in the field of environmental protection, determine the development and introduction of innovative technologies in the field of car production. To power the most modern vehicles that include electric and hybrid cars, packages of various types of lithium-ion cells are used, the number of which is constantly growing. After use, these batteries, due to their complex chemical composition, constitute hazardous waste that is difficult to manage and must be recycled in modern technological lines. The article presents the morphological characteristics of the currently used types of Li-ion cells, and the threats to the safety of people and the environment that may occur in the event of improper use of Li-ion batteries and accumulators have been identified and described on the basis of the Regulation of the European Parliament and Council (EC) No. 1272/2008 of 16 December 2008 and No. 1907/2006 of 18 December 2006 on the classification, labeling and packaging of substances and mixtures and the registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemicals (REACH), establishing the European Chemicals Agency.

The role of the adaptive microenvironment components in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) infection is widely researched, but remains unclear. Studying the common dynamics of adaptive immune response changes can help understand the pathogenesis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), especially in critical patients. The aim of the present study was to determine the cytokines concentration and leukocyte subpopulations profiles in the severe COVID-19 (n = 23) and critical (n = 18) COVID-19 group distinguished by the computed tomography (CT) severity score. We observed lower percentage of lymphocyte subpopulation, higher neutrophils to lymphocytes ratio (NLR) and higher IL-6 concentration in critical COVID-19 group than in severe group. CT severity score was negative correlated with proportion of lymphocytes, lymphocytes T, CD4+ cells, Treg cells and NK cells and positive correlated with neutrophils, NLR, and IL-6. In critical group more correlations between cytokines and lymphocytes were observed, mainly between TNF-α, IL-1β and lymphocyte subpopulations. The collective assessment of the cytokine profile, leukocyte subpopulations and the CT severity score can help to characterize and differentiate patient in advanced COVID-19 than the study of single parameters. We have shown that the interconnection of elements of the adaptive microenvironment can play an important role in critical COVID-19 cases.

Lithium-ion batteries are currently one of the most important mobile energy storage units for portable electronics such as laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc. Their widespread application leads to the generation of large amounts of waste, so their recycling plays an important role in environmental policy. In this work, the process of leaching with sulfuric acid for the recovery of metals from spent Li-ion batteries in the presence of glutaric acid and hydrogen peroxide as reducing agents is presented. Experimental results indicate that glutaric-acid application improves the leaching performance compared to the use of just hydrogen peroxide under the same conditions. Obtained samples of leaching residues after mixed inorganic-organic leaching were characterized with Scanning Electron Microscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction.

The battery powder (anodic and cathodic mass) manually separated from spent Li-ion batteries used in laptops was subjected to acidic reductive leaching to recover the Co, Li, and Ni contained in it. In the laboratory experiments, 1.5 M sulfuric acid was used as the leaching agent and the reducing agents were 30% H2O2 solution or/and glutaric acid. Glutaric acid is a potential new reducing agent in the leaching process of spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The influence of the type of the used reducer on obtained recovery degrees of Co, Li, and Ni as well as the synergism of the two tested reducing compounds were analyzed. As a result, it was determined that it is possible to efficiently hydrometallurgically separate Co, Li, and Ni from battery powder into solutions. The highest recovery degrees of the investigated metals (Co: 87.85%; Li: 99.91%; Ni: 91.46%) were obtained for samples where two reducers, perhydrol and glutaric acid, were added, thus confirming the assumed synergic action of H2O2 and C5H8O4 in a given reaction environment.