Browsing by Author "Mamo, Messai A."

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    Progress in lignin hydrogels and nanocomposites for water purification: Future perspectives
    (Elsevier, 2017-08-12) Thakur, Sourbh; Govender, Penny P.; Mamo, Messai A.; Tamulevicius, Sigitas; Kumar Mishra, Yogendra; Kumar Thakur, Vijay
    Lignin is one of the most abundant natural polymers after cellulose and has attracted great attention in academia as well as in industry for miscellaneous applications. Lignin also exhibits very high potential as a renewable sustainable resource for a galaxy of high value biochemicals. Due to the typical structure of lignin, it can be converted into different types of useful products. From a ligno-cellulose bio-refinery prospective point of view, it can be regarded as an economic bio product and can also be used as filler in several polymers to form blends or composites. Recently lignin-based hydrogels have shown excellent performance for removal of various pollutants from water. The adsorption properties of lignin based hydrogels can further be improved by using a combination of nanomaterials and lignin that results in promising hydrogel nanocomposites. In nature, the most abundant structures are formed by the combination of lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses. In this article, we have attempted to comprehensively review the research work carried out in the direction of usage of lignin-based hydrogel for removal of toxic pollutants including metal ions and dyes.
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    Recent progress in gelatin hydrogel nanocomposites for water purification and beyond
    (Elsevier, 2017-05-31) Thakur, Sourbh; Govender, Penny P.; Mamo, Messai A.; Tamulevicius, Sigitas; Kumar, Vijay
    Innovative characteristics of hydrogels such as swellability, modifiability and hydrophilicity make them materials of choice for water treatment and other applications. Hydrogels have shown excellent adsorptive performance for different types of water pollutants comprising toxic dyes, nutrients and heavy metals. Among different types of hydrogel based materials, hydrogel-nanomaterials combination represent a highly viable method to further improve the properties of hydrogel for numerous applications. The combination of hydrogel and nanomaterials leads to the development of hybrid hydrogel with multifunctional network. This novel combination gives synergistic effect to the newly formed novel hydrogel materials. In this article, we briefly review the recent progress in gelatin based hydrogel nanocomposites with particular emphasis on wastewater treatment along with biomedical applications.