Browsing by Subject "Effective removals"

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    “Nanotraps” in porous electrospun fibers for effective removal of lead(II) in water
    (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2016-02) Senthamizhan A.; Balusamy, B.; Celebioglu A.; Uyar, Tamer
    Here, we have put in conscientious effort to demonstrate the careful design of binding sites in fibers and their stability for enhanced adsorption of metal ions, which has proven to be a challenging task until now. Dithiothreitol capped gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) are successfully encapsulated into a cavity in the form of pores in electrospun porous cellulose acetate fibers (pCAFs) and their assembly creates a "nanotrap" for effective capture of Pb2+. The enhanced immobilization capacity of AuNCs into the interiors of the fibers and their non-aggregated nature offer enhanced adsorption sites, thus reaching maximum extraction capacity up to 1587 mg g-1 for Pb2+. The remarkable finding from this approach has shown that the diffusion of Pb2+ into the interiors of the AuNC encapsulated porous cellulose acetate fiber (pCAF/AuNC) is in line with the penetration depth of AuNCs. The effectiveness of the pCAF/AuNC has been compared with that of the AuNC decorated non-porous cellulose acetate fibers (nCAF/AuNC). The findings have shown a remarkable improvement in the adsorption efficiency by increasing the availability and stability of adsorption sites in the pCAF/AuNC. We strongly believe that the proposed approach might provide a new insight into developing nanotraps to eliminate the usual limitations including denaturation of adsorbents on supported matrices. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2016.
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    Selective and efficient removal of volatile organic compounds by channel-type gamma-cyclodextrin assembly through inclusion complexation
    (American Chemical Society, 2017) Celebioglu A.; Ipek, S.; Durgun, Engin; Uyar, Tamer
    Cyclodextrins (CD), produced from enzymatic degradation of starch, are a form of biorenewable cyclic oligosaccharide which has an outstanding capability to form inclusion complexes with a variety of molecules including pollutants due to their toroid-shaped molecular structure. In this study, by a simple reprecipitation method, we obtained "channel-type" packing from γ-CD where CD molecules are stacked on top of each other to form long cylindrical channels. The γ-CD "channel-type" crystals have shown very effective removal of organic volatile compounds (VOCs; aniline and toluene) from the surroundings, whereas cage-type γ-CD could not entrap VOCs from the same environment. Encapsulation capability of channel-type γ-CD is at a ∼2:1 and ∼1:1 molar ratio for aniline/CD and toluene/CD, respectively. Thus, channel-type γ-CD crystals have shown higher removal efficiency for aniline compared to toluene. Channel-type γ-CD is also able to remove aniline selectively from surroundings. Additionally, computational modeling studies suggested that single γ-CD cavity can host two molecules of aniline or toluene for the complexation, yet, aniline is more insistent to make a complex with the γ-CD cavity when compared to toluene. We show that channel-type γ-CD can remove VOCs molecules (aniline and toluene) as efficiently as activated carbon. Hence, being a starch-based biorenewable cyclic oligosaccharide in the form of white powder, the use of "channel-type" γ-CD crystals could be a competitive alternative to activated carbon as an adsorbent for the VOC removal/filtering.