Title : Design and fabrication of hybrid Nano-Filters for waste water remediation
Abstract:
Deterioration in the drinking water facilities is one of the major and life threatening concerns of the developing world. A number of scientific studies have been conducted to resolve the issue while numerous are in pipeline to attain a cost-effective method for the particular issue. Present research also highlights the scientific efforts done in the similar field to resolve this devastating issue. Promising results were obtained by synthesizing photocatalytic nanocoatings comprised of mixed-metal oxides of ZnO-CdO and ZnO-MnO2 via co-precipitation method followed by their inclusion in multi-layered thin polymeric films using Layer-by-layer (LbL) deposition. FTIR and XRD analyses confirmed the appropriate chemical bonding (503.44 cm-1 and 472.56 cm-1), crystallographic characteristics (ZnO-CdO~ 36.2nm and ZnO-MnO2 ~29.0nm), and phase identification of the subject moieties, respectively. Raman studies also confirmed the presence of specific bonding in relation to each type of mixed-metal oxide thin film setup. Multi-layered thin films deposition for PEI(PSS/ZnO-CdO)n and PEI(PSS/ ZnO-MnO2)n layers was also recorded at 375 nm for 10 bilayer of PEI(PSS/ ZnO-CdO) and PEI(PSS/ ZnO-MnO2), respectively, with increasing absorbance per layer pair. While testing their pollutant removal/degradation potential, the two multilayer systems were found highly effective to remediate an organic pollutant i.e. Methyl Blue from wastewater systems with photocatalytic degradation capabilities of up to 95% along with an appropriate re-cycling efficiency of upto several cycles. Moreover, the designed setup has also shown adsorption efficiency for inorganic pollutants e.g. heavy metals and 92% adsorption of 20ppm Cu is seen when tested against polluted water.
