Browsing by Author "Tamulevicius, Sigitas"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Recent approaches in guar gum hydrogel synthesis for water purification
    (Taylor and Francis, 2018-09-24) Thakur, Sourbh; Sharma, Bhawna; Verma, Ankit; Chaudhary, Jyoti; Tamulevicius, Sigitas; Thakur, Vijay Kumar
    Guar gum based hydrogels have evoked great attention in research as well as in industry for exploring miscellaneous applications in the field of water purification, medicine, agriculture, explosives, cosmetics, textile, paper, and food to name a few. In this article, latest modifications for developing guar gum based hydrogels and composite materials for water purification application are extensively reviewed. Regenerative nature of Guar gum hydrogels makes it a better choice for treating wastewater as well as other value-added applications. Moreover, nonionic nature makes guar gum an acceptable material for further modifications. In this article, we also present a brief discussion on structure and properties of guar gum.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Recent developments in recycling of polystyrene based plastics
    (Elsevier, 2018-03-27) Thakur, Sourbh; Verma, Ankit; Sharma, Bhawna; Chaudhary, Jyoti; Tamulevicius, Sigitas; Thakur, Vijay Kumar
    Due to their superior properties, plastics derived from petroleum have been extensively used almost in everyday life since last few decades. Because of lack in the manageability of plastic solid waste, their volume is increasing steadily in the natural world. Unfortunately, the disposal of plastics wastes in the oceans and land filling has led to a global issue. To effectively and efficiently deal with plastic solid waste is becoming a great challenge for the society as plastic solid waste creates big threat to our environment. Recycling of plastics solid waste should be performed to produce products having same quality to original plastics. This review article gives an overview of plastics solid waste with particular emphasis on the recent progress in polystyrene based plastics.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Recent progress in sodium alginate based sustainable hydrogels for environmental applications
    (Elsevier, 2018-06-27) Thakur, Sourbh; Sharma, Bhawna; Verma, Ankit; Chaudhary, Jyoti; Tamulevicius, Sigitas; Thakur, Vijay Kumar
    Recently, there is a growing research interest in the applications and development of novel sustainable hydrogel materials in waste water treatment because of radically distinctive chemical and physical characteristics of hydrogels such as hydrophilicity, swell ability and modifiability to name a few. Hydrogels have exposed the hypernym functioning in the removal of a wide range of aqueous pollutants containing toxic dyes and heavy metal ions. A large amount of water gets incorporated in the three dimensional networks of hydrophilic structures of hydrogels. The prime objective of this review article is to render a presentation on the recent advances in the modifications of sodium alginate based hydrogels for the adsorptive removal of toxic pollutants. In addition, article also briefly gives the classification and properties of hydrogels and alginate.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Sustainability of bioplastics: opportunities and challenges
    (Elsevier, 2018-04-27) Thakur, Sourbh; Chaudhary, Jyoti; Sharma, Bhawna; Verma, Ankit; Tamulevicius, Sigitas; Thakur, Vijay Kumar
    Recycling is groundwork of the worldwide efforts to diminish the amount of plastics in waste. Mostly around 7.8–8.2 million tons of poorly-used plastics enter the oceans every year. Non-biodegradable plastics settlements in landfills are uncertain, which hinders the production of land resources. Non-biodegradable plastic solid wastes, carbon dioxide, greenhouse gases, various air pollutants, cancerous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and dioxins, released to the environment cause severe damage and harmfulness to the inhabitants. Due to the bio-degradability and renewability of biopolymers, petroleum-based plastics can be replaced with bio-based polymers in order to minimize the environmental risks. In this review article, bio-degradability of polymers has been discussed. The mechanisms of bio-recycling have been particularly emphasized in the present article.