Professor, Applied Chemistry Department, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India

Speech Title: Polymer and carbon nanomaterials based composites for efficient treatment of contaminated effluents
Abstract: We have been exploring the effect of functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNT) on the separation characteristics of thin film composite membranes of polyether sulfone prepared by phase inversion process. These include the porosity variation on the functionality, concentration and the casting technique used during the fabrication of the composite membranes. The morphology of the composite membranes was studied by capillary flow porometry as well as with small angle neutron scattering (SANS) to evaluate the pore structure of the membranes and also the uniformity of the pores as these is the key to the separation characteristics of the membranes. SANS analysis reveals smaller pore diameters than the results obtained from capillary flow porometery. It is also observed by SANS that smaller pore dimensions were detected when the composite membranes where soaked in the D 2 O compared to when it is soaked in deionized water which could be due to better scattering. Thus the detection limit of the pores could be improved. One can even detect the cross sectional image of cold fractured membrane from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) which shows the asymmetric nature of membranes, which indicates that the composite membrane also under go similar solvent-nonsolvent interactions when made by the phase-inversion process. The thermal stability of composite membranes analyzed by Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) showed enhanced thermal properties and better stability to degradation than the pristine membranes. These membrane characteristics resulted in better selectivity for ions in a mixture of ionic species in solution.