Bhopal : Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal (IISERB) Researchers have developed organic polymers, which can remove highly polar organic micropollutants (POMs) from water. This process will render the water safe for consumption.
These polymers have been tested for polar organic micropollutants removal at a laboratory scale. Large-scale fabrication of these materials in collaboration with industrial partners will open up a promising avenue for real-time scavenging of toxic polar organic micropollutants from water.
The Organic Polymers are called ‘Hyper-crosslinked Porous Organic Polymers’ (HPOPs), a teaspoon of the powder of these polymers will cover an internal surface area of 1,000-2,000 m2/g, which is close to 10 tennis courts.
The main advantages of these HPOPs include:
- Large-scale fabrication using cheap and simple aromatic precursors without requiring any transition metal-based exotic catalysts, and
- High thermal and hydrothermal stability.
The Research was led by Dr. Abhijit Patra, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, IISER Bhopal, at the Functional Materials Laboratory of the Institute. The Team comprised of Mr. Arkaprabha Giri, Ph.D. student, Department of Chemistry, IISER Bhopal, Mr. Subha Biswas, former BS-MS student of Department of Chemistry, IISER Bhopal, currently, pursuing Ph.D. at IISc Bangalore, Dr. MD. Waseem Hussain, former Ph.D. student of Department of Chemistry, IISER Bhopal, currently, pursuing post-doctoral research at Hanyang University, South Korea, Mr. Tapas Kumar Dutta, Ph.D. student, Department of Chemistry, IISER Bhopal, and Dr. Abhijit Patra.
This project was funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, under ‘Centre for Sustainable Treatment, Reuse and Management for Efficient, Affordable and Synergistic solutions for Water’ (WATER-IC for SUTRAM of EASY WATER) Initiative.
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