Research Projects

Water is a vital natural resource, but only 1% is available for human consumption, and around 1.1 billion people lack access to adequate drinking water due to growing populations, environmental and climatic concerns, and rising costs of portable water. The water supply chain faces challenges such as continuous contamination of freshwater resources by organic and inorganic pollutants from various sources, such as industries, mining, agriculture, and domestic households. This poses a significant environmental threat to all living beings, as the human body contains over 70% water content. To avoid health complications and illnesses, wastewater treatment with low-cost, efficient techniques is essential. Traditional methods have drawbacks such as high energy requirements, toxic sludge generation, and incomplete pollutant removal. Adsorption is one of the most efficient techniques for removing pollutants involving both inorganic and organic components. Nanotechnology, specifically designed nanomaterials and nanocomposites, can significantly improve wastewater treatment. The sorption features of rGO have been explored for low-cost water treatment materials, but the aggregation of graphene layers can impede mass transport and reduce surface area, limiting its application in ecological preservation and wastewater treatment. To overcome these drawbacks, new designed metal hydroxide-rGO nanocomposites can be developed for wastewater treatment. The effective binding sites of Mg/Ca(OH)2 - rGO nanocomposites can effectively increase the adsorption of heavy metal ions and dyes due to ? electrons in the GO sheet.