Ricerc@Sapienza

Plant-assisted bioremediation (PABR) represents a green technique for the recovery and remediation of contaminated areas. The biomass produced by these crops is generally considered as a contaminated waste product and potentially harmful. Therefore, it is very important to characterize these biomasses aiming at understanding if they can be treated like traditional biomasses and it is possible to use them in energy conversion process (pyrolysis, gasification, etc.).

A novel type of graphene-like quantum dots, synthesized by oxidation and cage-opening of C60 buckminsterfullerene, has been studied as a ?uorescent and absorptive probe for heavy-metal ions. The lattice structure of such unfolded fullerene quantum dots (UFQDs) is distinct from that of graphene since it includes both carbon hexagons and pentagons. The basic optical properties, however, are similar to those of regular graphene oxide quantum dots.

Cigarette smoke is the main source of indoor chemical and toxic elements. Cadmium (Cd), Thallium (Tl), Lead (Pb) and Antimony (Sb) are important contributors to smoke-related health risks. Data on the association between Rare Earth Elements (REE) Cerium (Ce) and Lanthanum (La) and domestic smoking are scanty. To evaluate the relationship between cigarette smoke, indoor levels of PM 2.5 and heavy metals, 73 children were investigated by parental questionnaire and skin prick tests.

In this study the copper and lead adsorption efficiency onto banana peels powder was investigated. The agro-industrial waste recovery represents one of the Circular Economy pillars. In the view of the synthesis of an environmentally friendly adsorbent material, the powder was used without any preliminary chemical or thermal activation, but only after simple washing, drying and grinding. The bio-adsorbent was characterized by the FTIR technique and tested in batch mode on synthetic aqueous solutions containing Pb and Cu in the range 10–90 mg·L− 1.

This study focused on the inorganic environmental contaminants in specific food products which form part of the
food chain of the population residing in the area of Southern Italy (Gela) where there is a high mortality rate
linked to tumor diseases and congenital malformations. Determination of toxic metals was performed by
Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). The toxicological data for every toxic element has
been applied to evaluate the risk for the consumer by calculating the amount of potentially toxic element that