Researchers at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology, Mohali, developed a biodegradable nanofibre membrane using turmeric-derived nanoparticles to clean industrial wastewater. This material uses light and mechanical vibrations to break down persistent dyes. In tests, it removed 98.6 per cent of methylene blue, offering a new way to treat effluents.
Researchers develop biodegradable nanofibre membrane to degrade dyes in industrial wastewater
Researchers at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), Mohali, have developed a biodegradable nanofibre membrane that combines light and mechanical vibrations to degrade persistent dyes in industrial wastewater.
The material integrates zinc oxide nanoparticles, synthesised using turmeric extract, with polylactic acid nanofibres. Natural compounds in turmeric act as reducing and stabilising agents, helping avoid the use of conventional synthesis routes involving harmful reagents.
The membrane combines photocatalysis with piezocatalysis. Mechanical vibrations generated by ultrasound produce electrical polarisation in the material, helping suppress electron-hole recombination and enhance the formation of reactive species that break down pollutants.
In laboratory tests, the nanofibres achieved 98.6 per cent decolourisation of methylene blue and 96.7 per cent for Congo red, within 120 minutes, under combined light and ultrasonic excitation. The material also showed antibacterial activity, inactivating nearly 75 per cent of E coli and 71 per cent of S aureus after six hours.
Machine learning was used to predict dye-decolourisation behaviour based on variables, including light intensity, wavelength, ultrasonic frequency, catalyst quantity, treatment time and dye concentration.
The researchers say the material could find application in treating textile and other industrial effluents containing persistent dyes and microbial contaminants. Its practical performance, however, will need to be established beyond laboratory tests.
The study was published in Advanced Functional Materials.
A single carbon atom can reshape peptide-based nanomaterials
A change as small as inserting a single carbon atom into a molecule can alter how it assembles and behaves, researchers at the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bengaluru, have found.
The team introduced a single methylene spacer between a peptide and a fluorescent pyrene unit. This subtle change altered the relative orientation of the molecular components, producing different patterns of molecular packing, chirality, fluorescence behaviour and nanoscale organisation, without changing the basic peptide framework.
Peptides, the building blocks of proteins, can spontaneously assemble into ordered nanostructures. Controlling this self-assembly to obtain specific structures and properties, however, remains a challenge.
The research team, led by Dr Goutam Ghosh of CeNS, comprised PhD student Sourav Moyra and scientists from the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru, and Ghatal Rabindra Satabarsiki Mahavidyalaya, in Ghatal, West Bengal.
The study demonstrates how molecular geometry can be used to influence this process.
The findings could offer a means for designing functional soft materials through the precise control of molecular organisation, rather than extensive chemical modification. Potential applications include biosensing, bioimaging, photonic materials, optoelectronics and molecular electronics.
The research was published in Polymer Chemistry, a journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry.