posted on 2023-01-06, 14:07authored byMeheboob Khan, Siddhartha Das, Aparna Roy, Sumita Roy
In this work, the gelation ability of a series of novel
pyridine-based
glucose tailored gelators (DPHAEN, DPHABN, and DPHAHN) with a flexible
alkyl chain has been examined in binary solvent mixtures using a number
of techniques, for example, UV spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy, NMR
spectroscopy, rheology measurement, SEM, XRD, and computational study.
Proposed herein is an environment-friendly method to realize toxic
dye separation and oil/water separation. It has been found that gels
in a selective binary solvent mixture are efficient reusable absorbers
of toxic dye molecules. A new gravitational force-driven, simple one-step,
toxic dye removal and oil-water separation method is presented for
sustainable filtration of waste water and simultaneous collection
of oil. The gel column also showed high stability and reusability
over repeated use and can be easily scaled for efficient clean-up
of a large number of toxic dyes and oil spills present in water. Studies
also exposed that the gel column can simultaneously separate dye molecules
and mineral oils from water. This simple, green, and efficient method
overcomes a nontrivial hurdle for environmentally safe separation
of toxic dyes as well as oil/water mixtures and offers insights into
the design of advanced materials for practical oil/water separation.