Notice of RetractionRemoval of Pollutants from Water by Nano-Scale MgO Particles: Feasibility and Disadvantage

Notice of Retraction

After careful and considered review of the content of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE´s Publication Principles.

We hereby retract the content of this paper. Reasonable effort should be made to remove all past references to this paper.

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Nano-scale MgO particles were utilized to remove pollutants from water, and the disadvantage in the application of nano-MgO was also discussed. In comparison to other oxide nanoparticles (ZnO, CuO, Fe₂O₃ and Al₂O₃), nano-MgO exhibited better performance in the removal of organic matters and heavy metals (Fe, Mn). In addition, nano-MgO could not remove nitrate and nitrite, but it could decrease the concentration of ammonium by 35%, while limited ammonium could be removed by other oxide nanoparticles in this experiment. Moreover, all kinds of the oxide nanoparticles in this experiment could remove more than 90% of bacteria in the water. On the other hand, the high pH value and the residual nanoparticles may limit the application of nano-MgO. Based on our results, adding Fe₂(SO₄)₃ or Al₂(SO₄)₃ resulted in the initial pH decreasing to 5.0-6.0. However, after that, the pH value increased continually and became more than 8.5 in 1.5 hours. In the reactor with 30 mL or 50 mL of KH₂PO₄ (1/15 mol/L), although the initial pH exceeded 9.0, the pH could keep stable for several hours. Furthermore, activated carbon was used to reject the nano-MgO in the water. It was shown that the activated carbon could adsorb more than 60% of Mg content in the water, but adsorption capability did not change as its dosage increased from 3 g/L to 15 g/L.