title: Utilization of food industry wastes for the production of zero-valent iron nanoparticles.
abstract: The proper disposal of the several types of wastes produced in industrial activities increases production costs. As a consequence, it is common to develop strategies to reuse these wastes in the same process and in different processes or to transform them for use in other processes. This work combines the needs for new synthesis methods of nanomaterials and the reduction of production cost using wastes from citrine juice (orange, lime, lemon and mandarin) to produce a new added value product, green zero-valent iron nanoparticles that can be used in several applications, including environmental remediation. The results indicate that extracts of the tested fruit wastes (peel, albedo and pulp fractions) can be used to produce zero-valent iron nanoparticles (nZVIs). This shows that these wastes can be an added value product. The resulting nZVIs had sizes ranging from 3 up to 300 nm and distinct reactivities (pulp>peel>albedo extracts). All the studied nanoparticles did not present a significant agglomeration/settling tendency when compared to similar nanoparticles, which indicates that they remain in suspension and retain their reactivity.
authors.affiliation: REQUIMTE, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida 431, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Machado
authors.affiliation: REQUIMTE, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida 431, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Grosso
authors.affiliation: REQUIMTE, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida 431, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: H P A
authors.initials: HPA
authors.lastname: Nouws
authors.affiliation: REQUIMTE, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida 431, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal. Electronic address: jtva@isep.ipp.pt.
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Albergaria
authors.affiliation: REQUIMTE, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida 431, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Delerue-Matos
mesh_terms: D019649:Food Industry; D007220:Industrial Waste; D007501:Iron; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D007220:Industrial Waste; D007501:Iron
keywords: Antioxidant capacity; Citrines; Food wastes; Green production; Zero-valent iron nanoparticles