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Detection and removal of contaminants

1) Removal of contaminants:

Here we develop novel eco-friendly nanocomposites that have target specificity towards the contaminant in soil and water.  The contaminants are further removed by sorption, degradation, reduction etc. 

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Removal of dyes from wastewater

Removal of nanoplastics

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Remediation of metal pollutants -  Chromium

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Removal and recovery of toxic metal oxide pollutants -  CeO2 nanoparticles

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Remediation of Cr using modified aluminium oxide nanocomposites

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 2) Detection of Contaminants:

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In this part of the work, the main focus is to design and develop sensing technologies for the detection of environmental contaminants such as toxic metal ions, pesticides, plastics.

 

  • Contamination of the environment with pathogens and heavy metal ions has been an important concern throughout the world for decades. Although there are conventional methods (ICP AES, AAS, HPLC, GC etc.) to detect the contaminants at lower detection limit they are labor-intensive, involve complex sample preparation, expensive, cross sensitive and time-consuming.

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  • Moreover, rapid differentiation and accurate identification of these chemical hazards are crucial to timely planning and appropriate measures for public safety. As a result, the availability of rapid, sensitive and cost-effective diagnostic methods (sensors) is paramount to the success of a comprehensive national health security system.

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  • Nanoparticles because of their unique optical properties, high surface to volume ratio, super fluorescence quenching abilities and compatibility with biological organisms they are extensively used in the development of nano and chemosensors. The group has developed a nanoparticle-based sensor (below figure) that is portable, user-friendly and capable of testing multiple agents simultaneously.

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The main topics are:

  1. Development of a NSET (nanoparticle-based surface energy transfer) probe for the sensitive and selective detection of metals (mercury, arsenic, etc.) and pesticides present in environment samples

  2. Design & development of portable, compact, cost-effective, highly specific and sensitive nanoparticle-based sensor for the detection of chemical toxins present in the environmental samples

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Selected publications of the topic:

  1. Removal and recovery of toxic nanosized Cerium Oxide using eco-friendly Iron Oxide Nanoparticles, Kanha Gupta, Nitin Khandelwal, Gopala Krishna Darbha, Frontiers of Environmental Science and Engineering, 2019, 14, 15

  2. Novel synthesis of clay supported amorphous aluminum nanocomposite and its application in removal of hexa-valent Chromium from aqueous solutions Nitin Khandelwal, Nisha Singh, Ekta Tiwari, Gopala Krishna Darbha, RSC Advances, 2019. 9(20): p. 11160-11169

  3. Gopala Krishna Darbha*, Anandhi Ray and Paresh Chandra Ray, “Gold nanoparticle-based miniaturized nanomaterial surface energy transfer probe for rapid ultrasensitive detection of mercury in soil, water and fish” ACS Nano,  1, 208, 2007​

  4. Gopala Krishna Darbha*, Hongtao Yu, Paresh Chandra Ray “Selective detection of mercury (II) ion using nonlinear optical properties of gold nanoparticles” Journal of American Chemical Society, 130, 8038, 2008

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