Research

Surface active iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) belong to a novel class of nanomaterials with inherent ability to adsorb at interfaces and perform diverse applications. Bulk solubility unintentionally contributes towards the toxicity of nanomaterials with largely unknown consequences. Surface active NPs provide a viable solution and limit the toxicity by restricting their action to interface. They extract pollutants across the immiscible interfaces for water purification without even incorporating in the aqueous bulk.

Clay pellets for P removal from agricultural runoff: Naturally occurring Ca-bentonite and kaolinite clay minerals acted as low-cost adsorbents for removing phosphorus (P) from waste water and soil. We use engineered clay pellets prepared with metal waste residuals (steel slag and drinking water treatment residual) on agricultural runoff treatment. Functionalization of Ca-bentonite pellets with polymeric surfactants dramatically enhanced the performance and pellets with steel slag and kaolinite show about 80% desorption of P. The protocol incorporating metal waste residuals offers cost effective and pilot scale production of media pellets for field evaluations.

High Entropy Alloy (HEA) nanoparticles: Iron oxide magnetic NPs exhibit inherent ability to reduce and extract heavy metal ions from aqueous phase to produce HEA NPs. The extraction of HEA NPs occurs in the form of metal – magnetic composite NPs responsive to external magnetic field. The protocol presented a methodology based on surface reduction and extraction of heavy metal ions in the form of HEA NPs from contaminated water by utilizing magnetic NPs.