To prepare pristine pinewood derived biochars (PB), crushed
loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) wood of 0.425–1 mm size was oven dried
at 80 ◦C and then pyrolyzed at 600 ◦C for one hour in a tube furnace
(MTI, Richmond, CA) under continuously flowing N2 gases.
The biochars were rinsed with tap water for 1 h and DI water for
10 min, and oven dried overnight at 80 ◦C. The nZVI/BC composites
were synthesized according to methods proposed by Jabeen et al.
[23] with modification. The reduction reaction took place by the
following equations: