UrFU PhD Student from Iraq Defended a Thesis on Two Specialties

10:08, June 27, 2024

Eman Shakir Awad Al-Sammarraei was the 1st at UrFU to conduct research devoted to the fabrication and research of ultrafiltration membranes by the phase-inversion method

Eman Shakir Awad Al-Sammarraei, PhD student of the Department of Fuel Chemical Technology and Industrial Ecology, defended her thesis this month. The topic of her thesis was "Preparation of new types of flat ultrafiltration membranes based on polyvinyl chloride and its modified structures" which corresponded to two specialties: 2.6.10 Technology of organic substances and 2.16.12 Chemical technology of fuels and high-energy substances. Her work was supervised by Tamara Sabirova, Doctor of Technical Sciences, and Grigory Zyryanov, Doctor of Chemical Sciences.

She 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. The research work devoted to the fabrication and research of ultrafiltration membranes by the phase-inversion method was carried out and defended for the first time in URFU.

"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.

Our alumna now works as a lecturer at the University of Technology in Iraq. However, she still keeps in touch with the UrFU teaching staff and her coursemates. 

"Ural Federal University is one of the top universities in Russia and It is a world-class university. The teaching staff is highly scientific, and all the university employees are cooperative. I developed my skills by working in scientific laboratories, and I'm very grateful to Grigory Zyryanov, he is the best professor I've had," says Eman Shakir.

Delfina Zakharova