Publications by authors named "Sowmya Appunni"

Effective pesticide remediation technology demands amendments in the advanced oxidation process for its continuous treatment and catalyst recovery. The evidence of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), an herbicide in water bodies, poses a major environmental threat to both humans and aquatic organisms. In the present study, a recirculation type photocatalytic reactor was developed to treat 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid using chitosan-TiO beads prepared via impregnation method under UV light.

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Advancement in photocatalysis is focused on large-scale commercialization where the immobilization techniques gain attention with an aim to recover and reuse the catalyst for the redemption of pollutants. TiO will act as a potential catalyst and chitosan, a natural biopolymer is used to immobilize TiO. 2,4-Dicholorophenoxyacetic acid, a common broadleaf pesticide found in surface and groundwater is taken as a model pollutant.

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N‑N‑N‑triethylammonium chitosan (TEAC) and carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCh), the two water-soluble chitosan derivatives were utilized for the removal and recovery of heavy metals by size enhanced ultrafiltration (SEUF). The strong positive quaternary ammonium [-N(CH)] cation in TEAC interacts with Cr(VI), which exists as a strong chromate anion thereby enabling the efficient removal of chromate through ultrafiltration. CMCh consists of COOH and NH moieties, which facilitate interactions with heavy metals such as Cu(II) and Ni(II).

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N, N, N-Triethyl ammonium functionalized cross-linked chitosan beads (TEACCB) was prepared by alkylation of glutaraldehyde cross-linked chitosan beads to remove nitrate from brackish water. Physico-chemical characteristics of TEACCB were analyzed using FTIR, SEM, EDAX, TGA, DTA, BET surface area, swelling ratio and pHzpc. The maximum nitrate removal capacity of TEACCB was 2.

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In this work, a new method namely silica dissolution method, has been adapted to increase the surface area of the cross-linked chitosan beads. Zr(IV) was loaded in the cross-linked chitosan beads in order to make it selective for the nitrate and phosphate anions from aqueous solutions. Zr(IV) loaded cross-linked chitosan beads prepared by normal method (ZrCB) and silica dissolution method (SD-ZrCB) were characterised using N2 adsorption/desorption studies, SEM, EDAX, XRD, FTIR, TGA, DTA and water regain property.

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A terpolymer of chitosan-melamine-glutaraldehyde was prepared for the first time and it was quaternized with glycidyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (GTMAC). The quaternized chitosan-melamine-glutaraldehyde resin (QCMGR) was found to be effective for the removal of nitrate and phosphate oxyanions. The resin was characterised with FTIR, SEM, EDAX, TGA, DTA, XRD and water regain property.

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