A New Plastic Adsorbent Created at the University

13:11, June 19, 2024

The chemist spoke about the development at her thesis defense

The Ural Federal University has developed an adsorbent for the purification of wastewater from car washes, including oil products. The membranes made of the new polymer substance have a 90 percent efficiency in capturing technogenic impurities. Al-Sammarraie Eman Shakir Awad, a PhD student in the Department of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry at UrFU, spoke about the development during her thesis defense.

"We obtained a new material based on polyvinyl chloride (PVC), improved by chemical modification with thiophenols or by the addition of silica. This polymer was tested and showed high adsorption properties - the efficiency of capturing harmful impurities was more than 90 percent. The adsorbent is useful for car wash wastewater treatment because of its ability to retain carcinogens, petroleum products, and other harmful substances that pose a threat to the environment", explains Eman Shakir.

With the help of adsorbents, it is possible to solve one of the most serious problems - reducing the consumption of fresh water for industrial needs by reusing treated water. However, as the chemists explain, the use of existing membranes for water purification is a very costly undertaking for companies due to the high cost of membranes. The UrFU chemists were able to create a modified adsorbent using a relatively inexpensive raw material - PVC.

"We used PVC as the base because it is inexpensive, accessible, and resistant to aggressive environments. This base allows the adsorbent to be reused - just rinse it with water", says Eman Shakir.

The dissertation defense was held on June 17. The members of the thesis committee voted to award Eman Shakir the degree of PhD Technical Sciences (Candidate of Technical Sciences).

Sergey Lukyanchenko

The news article was translated by UrFU International Marketing Office.
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