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Soil contamination by heavy metals has become an increasingly serious environmental problem throughout the world as a consequence of various anthropogenic activities such as industrial production and freewill voidance of wastes [1-3]. The pollution has a negative effect on the eco-environment as well as agricultural production, and eventually affects human and animal health [4, 5]. Although the remediation of polluted soil with heavy metals is a difficult, timeconsuming, and costly operation, in recent years many

Pure anatase TiO 2 spheres with mesoporous structure were prepared by a simple urea assisted hydrothermal process at low temperature. X-ray Diffractometer, Scanning Electron Microscope, Transmission Electron Microscope, and N 2 adsorption-desorption were used to characterize TiO 2 . The dye-sensitized solar cells results show that an overall light conversion efficiency of 6.96% which is 36.7% higher than that of the overall efficiency (5.09%) obtained from the P25 photoanode owing to the superior light scattering effect and the high level of dye loading capacity of microspheres.

Considering the high interests and concerns in regards to quantum dots (QDs), their properties and applications, this paper presents highly photoluminescent amino-functionalized carbon QDs which were prepared via a simple one-step method developed directly from pine needle. They were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, photoluminescence (PL), UV-Vis diffused reflectance spectra, transmission electron microscope and scanning electron microscopy. These carbon QDs show strong and stable PL, which is dependent on excitation wavelength. The intense PL under longer excitation wavelength and excellent bioactivities suggest they can be used for biomedical applications due to its high photostability and biocompatibility.

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