Dr. Priyanka Sharma Won 2020 Young Academic Inventor’s Award
Priyanka Sharma, PhD, Research Scientist, Department of Chemistry (PhD 2014, CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune India, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Chemistry, Stony Brook University) won the award “for her inventions leading to the development of nitro-oxidation method to extract nanocellulose from raw biomass, which drastically decreases the consumption of energy, chemicals and water.”
Nanoscale cellulose materials obtained from the chemical treatment of biomass are very effective agents for the removal of toxic species from water, including heavy metal ions. Professor Benjamin S. Hsiao and his collaborators at Stony Brook University have developed a simple, inexpensive and environmentally friendly approach to preparing nanostructured cellulose for water purification, based on a nitro-oxidation reaction carried out on biomasses of diverse origins. In addition to providing cellulose with a superior affinity for dissolved toxic ions, this process yields nitrogen-rich salts as byproducts, which can be recovered and used as fertilizers.
Efficient Removal of Arsenic Using Zinc Oxide Nanocrystal Decorated Regenerated Microfibrillated Cellulose Scaffolds
Stony Brook University researchers Dr. Priyanka Sharma, Dr. Sunil K. Sharma and Richard Antoine led by Professor Hsiao demonstrated for the first time a unique micro-fibrous composite system, containing ZnO nanocrystals adhered in a regenerated micro-fibrillated cellulose scaffold generated from jute cellulose. In general, the zinc oxide crystallites were reported to being effective adsorption medium for removal of arsenic ions from water, where the best removal efficiency was achieved at the neutral condition. Furthermore, excellent binding stability between zinc oxide nanocrystals and the R-MFC scaffold was found, where very low release of ZnO (ppb) took place during the arsenic ions adsorption. The unique format of ZnO/R-MFC nanocomposite also significantly reduces the energy consumption for secondary contaminant removal.
Fundamental Nitro-Oxidation Method Study
A simple nitro-oxidation method to extract cellulose nanofibers from raw biomass has been developed in our lab. This method involves the use of nitric acid or nitric acid-sodium nitrite mixtures to defibrillate and oxidize cellulose components. Experiments indicate that the method greatly reduces the need for multichemicals, and offered significant benefits in lowering the consumption of water and electric energy, when compared with conventional multiple-step processes at bench scale (e.g., TEMPO oxidation). Additionally, the effluent produced by this approach could be efficaciously neutralized using base to produce nitrogen-rich salts as fertilizers. Nanofibers with low crystallinity were found to be effective for removal of heavy metal ions for drinking water purification.
Research Highlight
Research Highlights
Efficient Heavy Metal Ions Remediation
The research is mainly focusing on the remediation of heavy metal ions in drinking water by functional modified cellulose material. For instance, micro dialdehyde cellulose-cysteine (MDAC-cys) and nano dialdehyde-cysteine (NDAC-cys), have been synthesized from wood pulp cellulose, the most abundant and sustainable biopolymer in the world. Their comparative behaviors in arsenic (III) remediation from drinking water is determined by AFS detection technique and confirmed by SEM characterization. Under Freundlich fitting model, MDAC-cys exhibits 982 mg/g adsorption capacity and NDAC-cys presents 1011 mg/g adsorption capacity by their thiol groups, in the presence of 2500 ppm As (III) impurities. Also, cellulose nanofiber (CNF) extracted from jute fiber through Nitro-oxidation method were used to remove Hg ions and Tl ions, high efficiency of remediation has obtained through ICP-MS analysis.
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