Adsorption of organophosphate pesticides on nitrogen-doped carbon cryogels and the assessment of their neurotoxic effects

Abstract

Efficient removal of different pollutants from the environment has become one of the most important challenges of modern society. The nitrogen-doped carbon cryogels were synthesized and characterized using XPS. All investigated materials have similar composition and structural disorder. By analyzing XPS spectra, the content of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen can be obtained, and the existence of functional groups containing these elements can be detected. Dimethoate, malathion, and chlorpyrifos removal were investigated under stationary and dynamic conditions. Stationary conditions demonstrated successful removal of aliphatic dimethoate and malathion by all investigated materials. Conversely, the materials with the lowest and highest nitrogen content proved ineffective with aromatic chlorpyrifos. Under dynamic conditions, all materials effectively removed malathion and chlorpyrifos while exhibiting suboptimal performance for dimethoate adsorption. The demonstrated efficacy suggests the potential application of these materials in water treatment. The toxicity of these pesticide solutions decreases over time, indicating that more toxic products were not formed.