Browsing by Author "Thakur, Sourbh"

Now showing 1 - 11 of 11
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    Cellulosic biomass-based sustainable hydrogels for wastewater remediation: Chemistry and prospective
    (Elsevier, 2021-10-03) Thakur, Sourbh; Verma, Ankit; Kumar, Vinod; Yang, Xiao Jin; Krishnamurthy, Satheesh; Coulon, Frederic; Thakur, Vijay Kumar
    Despite several technological improvements and achievements, wastewater treatment remains a serious issue internationally. Toxins in wastewater pose a significant threat to human health if left untreated. Due to macro-porous structure and different surface functionalization, cellulose biomass-based hydrogel is the most traditional adsorbent for removing harmful ions from wastewater. Recently, the introduction of several new cellulose derived materials have demonstrated their competitiveness in the removal of harmful ions. Numerous exceptional qualities better define this promising material, including high mechanical strength, large surface area and chemical inertness. This paper discusses the development status, preparation and modification methods of cellulose composites created by various materials (graphene, fly ash, graphene oxide and bentonite) which evaluates the research development and existing challenges in water treatment.
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    Electrocatalysts for electrooxidation of direct alcohol fuel cell: Chemistry and applications
    (Elsevier, 2019-09-11) Siwal, Samarjeet S.; Thakur, Sourbh; Zhang, Qibo B.; Thakur, Vijay Kumar
    In the present scenario, civilization wholly depends on energy generation and storage for better technological progress and extension in several scientific applications. Owing to limited conventional energy sources and high energy requirement, absolute, cost-effective, and eco-friendly substitute roots of energy are of the principal interest. In this direction, direct alcohol fuel cell is becoming more familiar and promising because of its straightforward configuration system, weight, and elevated power generation efficiency. Indeed, recent years have seen extensive research on the preparation and properties of the fuel cell system. The literature review presented in this article provides comprehensive information on electrooxidation of alcohol developed on different type of electrocatalyst. The integration of a range of nanomaterials is depicted to comprehend the effect of different properties such as a well-ordered porous structure, exemplary high specific surface areas, electronic conductivity, tremendous convenience to active sites, and improved mass transport for electrooxidation of fuel cell. In this article, we have presented a detailed review of fuel cells and defined the main perspective, rationale and motivation, research tasks, and objectives of study as well as the delimitation of the study.
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    Energy production from steam gasification processes and parameters that contemplate in biomass gasifier - a review
    (Elsevier, 2019-11-26) Siwal, Samarjeet Singh; Zhang, Qibo; Sun, Changbin; Thakur, Sourbh; Gupta, Vijai Kumar; Thakur, Vijay Kumar
    The transformation of biomass using steam gasification is a chemical route to facilitate changes in organic or residue supported carbonaceous substances addicted to carbon mono-oxide, hydrogen including carbon-di-oxide, etc. However, to commercialize the method of steam gasification, the hurdles persist during the gasification as well as downstream processing. This article delivers a summary of the different approaches that are described in the previous studies to achieve H2 refinement and adaptation within the gasifier system. These include advanced aspects in the research and development of biomass gasification (alike advancements under the gasification operation). The upshot of diverse operating conditions like steam flow rate, operating temperature, moisture content, gasifier agents, residence time, biomass to air, steam to biomass, equivalence ratio, etc. towards the execution of biomass gasifier. This review accomplishes that the interdependence of several issues must be considered in point to optimise the producer gas.
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    Graphite modified sodium alginate hydrogel composite for efficient removal of malachite green dye
    (Elsevier, 2020-01-16) Verma, Ankit; Thakur, Sourbh; Mamba, Gcina; Prateek; Gupta, Raju Kumar; Thakur, Pankaj; Thakur, Vijay Kumar
    Herein, porous sodium alginate/graphite based hybrid hydrogel was fabricated as an effective adsorbent for organic pollutant. Sodium alginate was modified through graft polymerization of acrylic acid and subsequently loaded with graphite powder to enhance its adsorption capability. The synthesized sodium alginate cross-linked acrylic acid/graphite (NaA-cl-AAc/GP) hydrogel composite was utilized in the removal of malachite green (MG) dye from aqueous solution using batch adsorption experiments. The NaA-cl-AAc/GP hydrogel composite was characterized by infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, thermo-gravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction. Under optimized experimental conditions, a maximum adsorption capacity of 628.93 mg g−1 was attained for malachite green dye. Moreover, the adsorption process could be well described by the Langmuir isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The hydrogel composite also showed 91% adsorption after three consecutive cycles of dye adsorption-desorption. Therefore, the NaA-cl-AAc/GP hydrogel composite is a potentially favourable material towards dye pollution remediation owing to its better swelling rate, environment friendliness, high adsorption potential and regeneration capability.
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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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    Progress in pectin based hydrogels for water purification: trends and challenges
    (Elsevier, 2019-03-07) Thakur, Sourbh; Chaudhary, Jyoti; Kumar, Vinod; Thakur, Vijay Kumar
    Pectin is one of the finest natural polymer which has drawn great attention because of its applications in different fields. Due to the quintessential structure of pectin, it can be transformed into variety of useful products. It can be utilized as a blend in many polymers to make a mixture or a composite material. Owing to considerable collection in chemical conformation and cross-linking mechanism, different pectin based hydrogels have been prepared for different characteristics in pharmaceutical and bio-medical sites. Inventive properties of hydrogels like volubility, swellability, solvability and hydrophilicity make them better alternative for wastewater treatment. Recently, pectin based hydrogels have demonstrated excellent performance to eliminate various metal ions and dyes from the polluted water. The adsorption characteristics of pectin based hydrogels can be upgraded by using nanoparticles, which prompts to the development of hydrogel nano-composites. In this review article, we have summarized a comprehensive assessment in the direction of using pectin based hydrogels to remove toxic pollutants from aqueous solution. Sodium acrylate-co-N-isopropylacrylamide based pectin hydrogel has demonstrated the maximum adsorption capacities of 265.49, 137.43, 54.86, 53.86, 51.72 and 50.01 mg g−1 for the adsorption of methyl violet, methylene blue, Pb(II), Cu(II), Co(II) and Zn(II) respectively. We have also discussed the pectin structure, properties and applications in this article.
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    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.
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    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.
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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.
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    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.
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    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.