**6. Conclusion**

Biocarbon as an alternative adsorption matrix for water treatment and emerging pollutants removal has been confirmed. The biocarbon usually shows better environmental results in comparison with activated carbon, and also in many cases, it provides better potential energy

92 Emerging Pollutants - Some Strategies for the Quality Preservation of Our Environment

The biochar has various environmental applications like pollutant removal, carbon sequestration, and soil amendment. It has unique properties which makes it an efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly material for contaminant removal. The different physical–chemical properties of the surface are microporosity and pH that can maximize its efficiency to various environmental applications. The research updates related to the pollutants interaction with surface functional groups of biochar and the effect of the parameters variability in biochar attribute to specific pollutants removal, involved mechanisms, and efficiency for these removals. Emerging pollutants (EPs) include agrochemicals, antibiotics, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHS), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), volatile organic compound (VOC), aromatic dyes, toxic metals, ammonia, nitrate, phosphate, sulfite from aqueous, gaseous, and solid phases. There is also the possibility of the biochar-tailoring properties to improve their removal efficiency for organic–inorganic contaminants [20]. The soil application not only remediates but improves soil properties as water-holding capacity, O2 content, and moisture level.

The removal of aromatic dyes, for example, rhodamine, methyl violet, and methyl blue by anionic biochar, is mainly involved in electrostatic attraction/repulsion interactions [17, 18, 25]. In these sorption mechanisms, highly polar biochar pyrolyzed at = <400°C contained aromatic Pi-configuration and electron donor and acceptor functional groups [20]. These π electronrich biochar functional groups (-Ve) have electron donor-acceptor interactions with π electron-deficient (+Ve) organic dyes. Hence, these interactions have resulted in an electrostatic repulsion and promoted pollutant adsorption via H-bonding between biochar and apolar

Crop residues as peanut, canola, soybean straw, rice hull, and so on derived biochar at a temperature of <400°C contained more O- and H-bearing functional groups. Thus, such a material exhibited a higher sorption capacity for apolar methyl violet and methylene blue due to pH change through biochar amendment [17, 24]. At higher pH, the net negative charge on biochar surface (due to dissociation of phenolic OH groups) increased the electrostatic interactions with methyl violet, whereas at lower pH, the π-π electron donor-acceptor interactions

At zero point charge (ZPC), biochar does not have any surface charge, and it develops surface charge dependent on pH. The pH below the biochar ZPC (8.17, 8.52 and 8.79) comprised positive charge and sorbs less methylene blue. Whereas the pH higher of the biochars ZPC comprise negative surface charge increasing the methylene blue adsorption due high electro-

Likewise, the sorption of polar antibiotics sulfamethazine (SMZ) by hardwood/softwoodderived biochars (produced at 300–700°C has pH-dependent interactions. At higher pH, H bonding occurs between anionic SMZ and COOH or OH group biochar. At lower and neutral pH, the π-π electron donor-acceptor interactions and cation exchange are dominant mechanisms

increased, thus improving the H-bonding for methylene blue sorption.

supplied for lignocellulosic materials.

dyes [26].

static attractions.

The emerging pollutants are considered potentially toxic chemicals present in low concentrations and many environmental compartments. They include pesticides, biocides, pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, and personal care products. The common entrance of these compounds in surface water resources is via untreated sewage discharge, the effluents of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), and from agricultural, urban, and street runoff. The organic pollutant water inputs usually occur continuously in low dosages or as peaks trigged by emission or runoff events. Such a behavior is particularly harmful to antibiotics environmental contamination, providing the optimized conditions for microorganism adaptation and increase in resistance. The concept of chemical activity helps to understand the EPs environmental fate, distribution, quantification, and prediction of the ecological partitioning theory of the chemicals in aquatic systems as water column, sediment (mostly organic matter), and biota (lipids and proteins) address single compound or mixtures reaching the equilibrium. The chemical activity relies on partition coefficients which are only available as experimental values. TiO2 has emerged as a promising photocatalyst for environmental cleanup applications; they have efficiently decomposed and removed a variety of pollutants, promoting the generation of OH radicals using oxidation reactions with in situ active oxygen generated upon light irradiation. In water purification, photodegradation of contaminants in real water samples has become an important topic of research in recent years. The results of the kinetics studies of photodecomposition and carbon sorption provide valuable insights about the kinetics models: pseudo-first-order (Eq. (1)), pseudo-second-order (Eq. (2)), and intraparticle with the determination of photodecomposition and adsorption rates. The ESI-MS analytical technique allows the measurement of the EPs methylene blue photodecomposition. Before the photodecomposition reaction, the methylene blue compound was only m/z 284, and after 1 day of photodecomposition, there are several peaks.

**Author details**

Address all correspondence to: nortizbr@gmail.com

Institute for Nuclear and Energy Researches—IPEN, São Paulo, Brazil

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Japan. 2003. Available from: www.orman-network.net

of Geoscience and Environmental Protection. 2017;**5**:1-17

[6] Ray SK, Dhakal D, Kshetri YK, Lee SW. Cu-alfa-NiMoO<sup>4</sup>

Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry. 2017;**348**:18-32

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EPs Antibiotics: Photodecomposition and Biocarbon Adsorption

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dation of methylene blue with pathways and antibacterial performance. Journal of

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photocatalyst for degra-

Nilce Ortiz

**References**

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2009.05.054

The UV spectra of amoxicillin (AMX) and the amoxicillin decomposition products (ADPs) as ADP1,2, ADP4,5, and ADP8,9 consisted of two peaks at λ = 230 and 275 nm, similar with AMX. This effect is due to the para-substituted phenolic group, which do not change in the AMX and ADPs skeleton and is the primary contributor to the observed UV spectra. The development of analytical technique allows the identification and quantification of the ampicillin and ampicillin degradation by-products as 2-hydroxy-3-phenylpyrazine (HPP) in the environment. The results indicate their presence in 42–79% of the monitored rivers and household ponds. In these locations, the HPP concentrations were in the range of 1.3–413.3 ngL−1.. The amoxicillin and many antibiotics can act as a complex ligand with several possible sites for metal ions like Cu (II), Zn (II), and Cd (II) for coordination on penicillin. The kinetics and thermodynamics calculations indicate neighboring group effects of the probable complexation sites, of metals and the C=O of the antibiotic β-lactamic group and the NH amido penicillin group. Published works related to a variety of antibiotics in polluted soil and water environment. Therefore, it is of great significance to explore the ecological risk of the combined exposure to various antibiotics. The mixture of different types of antibiotics may lead to varying joint effects on the bacteria, synergistic, additive, and some antagonistic effects. The biocarbon acts as an alternative adsorption matrix for water treatment and emerging pollutants removal, usually showing better environmental results in comparison with activated carbon, and also in many cases, it provides better potential energy supplied for lignocellulosic materials.
