Major organic microplutants found in surface water bodies include a variety of pharmaceutical, industrial, chemical and agricultural solutions.
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal (IISERB) have developed organic polymers that can remove high polar organic microplutants (POMs) from water. This process will make the water safer to use.
These polymers have already been tested on a laboratory scale for the removal of polar organic microplutants. The collaboration of industry partners will open up a promising path for real-time scavenging of toxic polar organic microplutants from large-scale artificial waters of these materials.
Called ‘Hyper-Crosslinked Porous Organic Polymers’ (HPOPs), one teaspoon of the powder of these polymers will cover an inner surface area of 1,000-2,000 m2 / g, which is close to 10 tennis courts.
The main advantages of these HPOPs are:
- Large-scale spellings using cheap and simple scented precursors, without the need for a conversion metal-based external catalyst, and
- High heat and hydrothermal stability.
The study was led by Dr. Abhijit Patra, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, IISER Bhopal, at the Institute’s Functional Materials Laboratory. The team includes Orkaprabha Giri, PhD student, Department of Chemistry, IISER Bhopal, Subha Biswas, former BS-MS student of Chemistry Department, IISER Bhopal, currently doing PhD at IISC Bangalore, Dr. Wasim Hussain, a former PhD student in the Department of Chemistry, IISER Bhopal, is currently doing post-doctoral research at Hanyang University in South Korea, Tapas Kumar Dutt, PhD student, Department of Chemistry, IISER Bhopal and Dr. Abhijit Patra. The project is funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, under the initiative ‘Center for Sustainable Treatment, Recycling and Management for efficient, affordable and synergistic solutions for water’ (Water-IC for Sutram of Easy Water).
The results are published in the American Chemical Society, a leading peer-reviewed journal of ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.
The major organic microplutants found in surface water bodies are:
- Various pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics, and steroids, among others,
- Industrial chemicals such as dyes, food additives, endocrine disruptors and plastic precursors, among others,
- Agricultural disposal such as pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers among others.
Researchers at IISER Bhopal’s Functional Materials Laboratory have developed a series of organic polymers called ‘Hyper-Crosslinked Porous Organic Polymers’ (HPOPs) with different sizes (from two-dimensional nanosheets to spherical nanoparticles).
A simple and inexpensive catalyst, weaving the tryptasein unit with halogen-containing organic solvent (dichloromethane) using anhydrous aluminum chloride, leads to HPOP with 2D sheet-like morphology with a significantly higher surface area of 2,400 m2. This solvent woven HPOP has a number of tiny pores (a few nanometers; 1 million times smaller than the cross-section of human hair).
As a result, HPOP, like 2D sheets, can act as a sponge to absorb various organic microplutants from the water. Further, the researchers followed a ‘same choice same’ design strategy to enhance the porous efficacy (sulfonic acid group), the ability to absorb tiny pore walls of highly porous 2D sheets, and the easy sequestration of highly polar organic micropolatants (POMs). ) From water.
The researchers showed, for the first time, the process of evolution of soluble woven HPOP 2D nanosheets from nanosphere to nanoribon to 2D nanosheets through electron microscopy. The rate of absorption of toxic cationic dye, methylene blue (carcinogenic, teratogenic, mutagenic) by solvent nit HPOP is the highest of the well-known absorbent substances reported in the literature (17.6 gm-1 min-1). HPOP, like 2D sheets, can isolate a wide spectrum of POMs, including antibiotics, endocrine disruptors, steroid-based drugs, ionic dyes, plastic precursors, pesticides, and herbicides, in just 30 seconds.