A new nanopaticles based technology to manufacture environmentally safe filtering materials

Scientists from Tomsk State University, Tomsk Polytechnic University and Tomsk Scientific Center of Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences published a monograph “Materials with polyfunctional properties based on nanoparticles modified fibers” which presents an advanced technology for manufacturing nanofilters to purify liquid and gas media.

Nowadays a number of tasks related to the modification of various media (such as sorption, various catalytic processes, and bactericidal treatment) using active nanosized particles is of great importance for the pharmaceutical, chemical, oil and gas, and food industries. However, one of the significant obstacles to implement them is their toxicity: a serious threat to living organisms may appear if nanoparticles are released into the environment. In addition, there are some technological difficulties associated with the development of methods to synthetize particles with properties needed and effective methods to fix these properties for further modification of liquid media.

– The published monograph solves the problem of efficient modification of liquid and gas media. The publication presents a new approach for the synthesis of safe nanoparticles with the desired properties based on metals and metal oxides with active centers. This approach is based on the differentiated impact of superfrequency radiation on the objects of different chemical composition. The safety of nanoparticles is achieved due to the fact that they are fixed on the carrier, so they are not released into the environment, – says Professor Alexander Potekaev, one of the authors of the monograph.

The authors of the book also found how to increase the contact area of the filter containing nanoparticles with the modified medium, which directly influences the efficiency of modification processes, including purification. It was possible to achieve such increase in the contact area due to the development of particular ultradisperse fibers, which are the basis for the manufacturing catalytic and bactericidal materials with metal-containing nanoparticles properly fixed on their surface.

As Alexander Ivanovich explained, the joint work of scientists from universities and research institutes resulted in a desired and environmentally friendly technology, taking into account its scientific, technological, organizational and economic aspects, which can be successfully applied in different industries.