Guwahati: IIT Guwahati researchers have introduced an innovative solution to combat biomass burning and marine oil spills. They’ve developed a Silica Nanoparticles-coated cotton fabric using rice husk, an abundant agricultural waste. This fabric effectively separates oil from oil-water mixtures, offering a sustainable solution to mitigate marine oil pollution. It’s also a cost-effective and eco-friendly method for separating harmful components from various environments.
Oil spills resulting from industrial discharges or accidents inflict irreversible harm upon aquatic ecosystems. Traditional clean-up methods such as skimming and in-situ burning not only prove inefficient but also contribute to further pollution. Researchers worldwide have been striving to devise energy-efficient materials for the separation of oil and water mixtures. Nevertheless, the conversion of biomass into modified silica for oil spill mitigation, with both sustainability and economic viability in mind, remained an unexplored avenue until now.
Professor Vaibhav V. Goud, from the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Guwahati, elaborated on this eco-friendly innovation, stating, “Our technology yields multiple environmental benefits. Rice husk, a byproduct of agriculture rich in silica, accumulates in millions of tons annually and is often disposed of through unscientific burning, resulting in air pollution. With our method, this waste rice husk is transformed into 3D sorbents capable of mitigating oil contamination through a selective active-filtration process.”
The process involves the gradual heating of cost-effective agricultural waste, rice husk, to convert it efficiently into bio-charcoal. Subsequently, this bio-charcoal undergoes further heating to transition into silica nanoparticles. The size of these nanoparticles can be adjusted by manipulating the pH of the bio-charcoal. To render the nanoparticles water-repellent, they undergo treatment with specialised chemicals called silanes. These treated nanoparticles are then applied as a coating over cotton material, resulting in a natural three-dimensional sorbent designed for separating oil-water mixtures.
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Professor Goud emphasised the significance of their work, stating, “Our experiments at IIT Guwahati have demonstrated that the coated cotton fabric specifically adsorbs oil, while the uncoated sample adsorbs both oil and water. This superhydrophobic material exhibits an impressive 98% efficiency and retains its functionality even after repeated use and exposure to harsh conditions.”
Details of this groundbreaking 3D oil-absorbing material have been published in the esteemed international journal Biomass and Bioenergy. The paper is co-authored by Professor Vaibhav V. Goud and his research scholar, Sutapa Das.
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