Synthesis of Photocatalytic Biomimetic Nanocomposite for Enhanced Water Purification

Authors

  • Jason J. Keleher Department of Chemistry, Lewis University, One University Parkway, Romeoville, IL USA
  • James Rago Department of Biology, Lewis University, One University Parkway, Romeoville, IL USA
  • Elizabeth Senese Department of Chemistry, Lewis University, One University Parkway, Romeoville, IL USA
  • Jacob Murray Department of Chemistry, Lewis University, One University Parkway, Romeoville, IL USA
  • Samantha J. Rinehart Department of Chemistry, Lewis University, One University Parkway, Romeoville, IL USA
  • Jeromy J. Rech Department of Chemistry, Lewis University, One University Parkway, Romeoville, IL USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37591/jowppr.v3i2.333

Abstract

Abstract
Clean and drinkable water is a critical necessity for all human and economic developments; unfortunately, millions of people do not have access to potable water, resulting in the death of over two million children every year. Over the past decade, emphasis has been placed on the synthesis and design of photocatalytic nanocomposites to enhance the chemical degradation of organic pollutants as a cost effective vehicle for clean water production. This work develops a biomimetic cellulose-based nanocomposite media, which utilizes visible light to degrade organic pollutants through photo-redox reactions. More specifically, surface modified nanoparticles (through noble metal deposition and dye functionalization) were synthesized to increase the photon capture efficiency in the visible light region of the resultant nanocomposite. Both dye sensitization and noble metal deposition showed a substantial increase in the amount of degraded model pollutant (~75%) when compared to unmodified TiO2 nanoparticles. In addition to increasing the photochemical degradation rate, the incorporation of Ag-functionalized nanocomposites resulted in a synergistic antimicrobial effect, which eliminated both Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus from the water sample.


Keywords: Water filtration, antimicrobial, biomimetic, wastewater, nanocomposite

Cite this Article
Jeromy J. Rech, Samantha J. Rinehart, Jacob Murray, Elizabeth Senese, James Rago, Jason J. Keleher. Synthesis of Photocatalytic Biomimetic Nanocomposite for Enhanced Water Purification. Journal of Water Pollution & Purification Research. 2016; 3(2): 1–16p.

Downloads

Published

2019-03-02

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 2 (2016)

Section

Articles

License

Declaration and Copyright Transfer Form

(to be completed by authors)

I/ We, the undersigned author(s) of the submitted manuscript, hereby declare, that the above manuscript which is submitted for publication in the STM Journals(s), is not published already in part or whole (except in the form of abstract) in any journal or magazine for private or public circulation, and, is not under consideration of publication elsewhere.

  • I/We will not withdraw the manuscript after 1 week of submission as I have read the Author Guidelines and will adhere to the guidelines.
  • I/We Author(s ) have niether given nor will give this manuscript elsewhere for publishing after submitting in STM Journal(s).
  • I/ We have read the original version of the manuscript and am/ are responsible for the thought contents embodied in it. The work dealt in the manuscript is my/ our own, and my/ our individual contribution to this work is significant enough to qualify for authorship.
  •  I/We also agree to the authorship of the article in the following order:

Author’s name                                    

 

1. ________________

2. ________________

3. ________________

4. ________________

 

We  Author(s) tick this box and would request you to consider it as our signature as we agree to the terms of this Copyright Notice, which will apply to this submission if and when it is published by this journal.