Title : Floating nanostructures to remove organic pollutants from water
Abstract:
In recent decades, growing population and industrial development have led to the release of huge amounts of highly toxic chemical pollutants into the environment, globally. Nanoadsorbents and nanophotocatalysts have been applied to remove diverse pollutants from water. Different types of semiconductors such as TiO2, ZnO, g-C3N4, and emerging metal-organic framework (MOF)-based photocatalysts have been prepared and used to remove organic pollutants from wastewater owing to their unique optical and physicochemical properties. Furthermore, many adsorbents including activated carbon and graphite, have been used to remove pollutants. However, such powdered materials can cause some problems such as the aggregation of the powder in suspension, resulting in a low removal rate. In addition, the separation process of the powdered sample is challenging. Consequently, the design of novel floating nanocomposites to eliminate organic pollutants from water, efficiently, is crucial to address the environmental issues.
As a result, in this talk, a summary of other researchers’ reports on floating nanostructures will be presented. Then, results obtained by my group about the synthesis of floating nanostructures of reduced graphene oxide and nanocellulose will be deliberated. In the end, the evaluation of the pollutant removal activity of the prepared floating nanostructures and nanocomposites will be discussed.
