Faculty Publications
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://idr.nitk.ac.in/handle/123456789/18736
Publications by NITK Faculty
Browse
3 results
Search Results
Item Removal of toxic arsenic from aqueous media using polyphenylsulfone/cellulose acetate hollow fiber membranes containing zirconium oxide(Elsevier B.V., 2020) Kumar, M.; Isloor, A.M.; Somasekhara Rao, T.; A.F., A.F.; Farnood, R.; Nambissan, P.M.G.Arsenic is one of the highly dangerous metalloid present in the polluted water, it's effective and economical removal is one of the major challenges to the researchers. It was planned to prepare hollow fiber membranes using polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) as a polymer, cellulose acetate (CA) and cellulose acetate phthalate (CAP) as additives with increased dosages (0.6, 1 and 1.5 wt%) of zirconium oxide (ZrO2) nanoparticle. The fabricated hollow fiber membranes were characterized by SEM, AFM, zeta potential, ATR-FTIR and XPS to analyze the membrane's morphologies (cross-section and surface), topography, surface charge and assessment of different functional groups. As used ZrO2 was characterized by TEM and XRD to analyze the morphology and crystallinity. The positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS) analysis was carried out for neat and ZrO2 contained membranes, to study the expansion of free-volume in membrane morphology. Leaching studies of the used zirconium with respect to different pH from the ZrO2 contained hollow fiber membrane was also examined. The enhancement of membrane hydrophilicity was confirmed by contact angle, porosity, water uptake and pure water permeability measurements. Membranes prepared by 1 wt% of ZrO2 in PPSU/CA (PZCA-1) and 0.6 wt% of ZrO2 in PPSU/CAP (PZCAP-0.6) were proved to be efficient as arsenic removal membranes (i.e. PZCA-1 as 87.24% and PZCAP-0.6 as 70.48% and permeability of 89.94 L/m2h bar and 70.59 L/m2h bar respectively) using lab-prepared 1 ppm standard arsenic solution at pH range of 6.8 ± 0.2. Also, there is a decrease in the arsenic removal tendency was observed with the excessive dosages of ZrO2, which is due to the concentration polarization on surfaces of the membranes. Antifouling behavior of the prepared hollow fiber membranes was also studied using bovine serum albumin (BSA). © 2020Item Catalyst- and Stabilizer-Free Rational Synthesis of Ionic Polymer Nanoparticles in One Step for Oil/Water Separation Membranes(American Chemical Society, 2022) Gnani Peer Mohamed, S.I.; Isloor, A.M.; Farnood, R.Ionic polymer nanoparticles (IPNs) were synthesized in one pot by quaternization precipitation polymerization (QPP) as a novel polymerization technique. QPP eliminated the usage of high-cost ionic monomers and reduced the number of steps for the preparation of IPN. The monomers 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) and 4-vinylbenzyl chloride (VBC) polymerized in the presence of azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) and underwent quaternization simultaneously, which yielded ionic poly(DMAEMA-co-VBC) nanoparticles in one step with the size of 50-80 nm without any stabilizer and catalyst. Similarly, 4-vinylpyridine (VP) and VBC polymerized in the presence of AIBN and underwent quaternization simultaneously, which yielded ionic poly(VP-co-VBC) nanoparticles in one step with the size of 70-90 nm without any stabilizer and catalyst. The as-synthesized IPN was further utilized for the fabrication of hydrophilic nanocomposite ultrafiltration membranes for oil/water separation. Fabricated hybrid membranes were characterized and studied for oil rejection properties. It exhibited an oil rejection of >96% with a pure water permeability of 219 L/m2 h bar. © 2022 American Chemical Society.Item Innovative membrane engineering: Polyphenylsulfone/silver-doped zinc oxide for high-efficiency protein rejection(Elsevier B.V., 2025) Panchami, H.R.; Isloor, A.M.; Vijesh, A.M.; Farnood, R.In the present study, the nanocomposite polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) flat sheet membranes containing silver-doped zinc oxide (Ag–ZnO) was synthesized by the dry/wet phase inversion technique. Spectroscopic characterizations confirmed the nanoparticle incorporation into the membrane matrix. Microscopic characterization validates that, Ag–ZnO nanoparticles were distributed uniformly throughout the membrane. The Ag–ZnO modified PPSU membranes were evaluated for their protein rejection performances against BSA, egg albumin and pepsin from their aqueous solutions. PPSU composite membranes with 1.5wt% Ag–ZnO nanoparticles showed enhanced pure water permeability and protein rejection properties compared to the neat membrane. Increased permeability, antifouling nature and rejection of proteins were attributed to the cumulative effects of adding Ag–ZnO nanoparticle into the membrane. The highest protein rejection was exhibited by the membrane AZM-2 for BSA, egg albumin and pepsin were 92.1 %, 86.8 % and 73.4 %, respectively. © 2025 The Authors