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Research Proposal: Optimum ENP for Oil Spill

Remediation
Literature Review Summary and Knowledge Gap
Oil spill contains crude oil, small amount of heavy metal, refined and
unrefined petroleum oil(Intertek, 2015). Due to these toxic chemicals, oil spill
is an environmental issue and needs great attention because of its adverse
effective in aquatic life and ecological balance. Use of nanomaterials in oil
spill remediation is a novice approach. Oil and water separation requires
technology with unique wettability, super hydrophobic and oleophilic surface
property. This can be achieved with surface modification using nanoparticles.
These types of modified nanomaterials will be able to absorb oil or toxic
organic compounds from the contaminated area. The literature review
explored four nanotechnologies that has been used in oil spill clean-up
process(Mahajan, 2011). The MnO nanowires and carbon-nanotube-stainless
steel mesh are capable of selective absorption with wide range of oils(Lee,
Johnson, Drelich, & Yap, 2011; Yuan et al., 2008). Magnetic nanocomposites
absorb small range of oil components but they have a quick absorption rate.
Moreover because of their magnetic property they can separate heavy
metals from the crude oil. Other than oil-water separation with absorption
process, toxic oil components can be degraded to harmless carbon
compound using photosynthesis TiO 2 nanomaterials(Ziolli & Jardim, 2002).
Little have been known about the toxicity of these technologies and some of
them are hard to implement in massive oil spill. The literatures also lacked
exploring multifunctional synergies of the nanomaterial for spill remediation.
Individually these approaches may seem incompetent in many ways
however, if the property of these nanotechnologies can be combined, the oil
spill remediation may no longer be a problem for the environment.

Objectives
The objective is to optimize the oil spill remediation process using
engineered nanoparticle (ENP) with multifunctional synergies. This
nanomaterial will preliminary be made of an iron oxide core-shell surrounded
by MnO nanowire. The nanowire will be coated with a layer of silica gel and
TiO2. This modified ENP will have selective adsorption ability, wide range of oil
absorption capacity. It will have magnetic property for quick treatment in the
contaminated area (In-situ treatment). The research will also involve in large
scale in-situ implementation method that show little to no toxic effect due to
the synthesized ENP.

Workplan
ENP Synthesize
The research will start with synthesizing the ENP with three functional
property. A MnO nanowire will be grown by hydrothermal method. The
nanowire will have a Fe3O4 core and MnO shell. A silica gel coating will be on
the nanowire followed by a TiO2 coating using sol-gel method.

Characterization
The characterization of the synthesized ENP will be done using X-ray
diffraction, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and high resolution-TEM
respectively(Stefan et al., 2014). The stability test and surface tension will be
calculated using DELVO equations. The composition of the sample will be
characterized with Energy Dispersion X-ray(EDX). The characterization will
also involve testing the magnetic property. The magnetic force will be
determined with simple weight balance and digital caliper(Gomes de Souza,
Marins, Rodrigues, & Pinto, 2010). The weight variation with a neodymium
N42 magnet (external Gauss strength and energy density equal to 13.2kG
and 42 MGOe, respectively) will be used for magnetic force measurement

using Fm = mg . Oxidation/photo catalytic effect will be measured using UV

lamp (365nm) as an excitation source and absorption measurement will be


taken from UV/VIS spectrometer(Guo et al., 2011). The water contact angle
on the surface and oleophilicity will be determined using commercial
CAM200 optical system by sessile drop method(Zhang et al., 2017). During
this stage the toxic effect of the used NP will also be analyzed on bacteria
and rats.
Oil Absorption Experiments (Lab scale and in-situ)
As the characterization completes, lab scale experiments will follow with
various types of oil. These experiments will illustrate the efficiency of the
ENPs and what types of organic/inorganic compound and oil can be
separated. The oil absorption property will be measured from the mass

g mt m0
variation before and after the treatment using Q ()
g
=
m0 (Zhang et al.,

2017).These experiments will also show the limitation of the technology.


However, once the experiments are successful this ENP will be used in actual
oil spill to check its large-scale effect.

A statement of novelty and significance of the research


Multifunctionality are still hypothetical in the field of nanotechnology
especially in oil spill remediation but very effective. This research will
synthesize a nanomaterial that will have multifunctionality that will improve
performance of oil clean-up process. The superhydrophobic and oleophilic
MnO nanowire will absorb wide range of oil components and TiO 2
nanoparticle will oxidize remaining organic compound to harmless
component. Crude oil contains small amount of toxic heavy metals(Intertek,
2015) which are often stayed untreated with traditional clean-up method.
The magnetic property of the metal oxide in the ENP will separate them from
contaminated area. Also after the treatment, the ENP can be easily removed
from the treated area using a magnet. The significance of this research is
that instead of using various clean-up methods this ENPs alone will be able to
remove any toxic chemicals from any kind of oil spills.

Reference
1. Gomes de Souza, F., Marins, J. A., Rodrigues, C. H. M., & Pinto, J. C.
(2010). A Magnetic Composite for Cleaning of Oil Spills on Water.
Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, 295(10), 942-948.
doi:10.1002/mame.201000090
2. Guo, M. Y., Fung, M. K., Fang, F., Chen, X. Y., Ng, A. M. C., Djurii, A. B.,
& Chan, W. K. (2011). ZnO and TiO2 1D nanostructures for
photocatalytic applications. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 509(4),
1328-1332. doi:http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2010.10.028
3. Intertek. (2015). SARA Heavy Oil Analysis.
4. Lee, C. H., Johnson, N., Drelich, J., & Yap, Y. K. (2011). The performance
of superhydrophobic and superoleophilic carbon nanotube meshes in
wateroil filtration. Carbon, 49(2), 669-676.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2010.10.016
5. Mahajan, Y. R. (2011). Nanotechnology-Based Solutions for Oil Spills.
Nanotech Insights(January 2011).
6. Stefan, M., Pana, O., Leostean, C., Bele, C., Silipas, D., Senila, M., &
Gautron, E. (2014). Synthesis and characterization of Fe3O4TiO2 core-
shell nanoparticles. Journal of Applied Physics, 116(11), 114312.
doi:10.1063/1.4896070
7. Yuan, J., Liu, X., Akbulut, O., Hu, J., Suib, S. L., Kong, J., & Stellacci, F.
(2008). Superwetting nanowire membranes for selective absorption.
Nat Nano, 3(6), 332-336.
doi:http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v3/n6/suppinfo/nnano.2008.1
36_S1.html
8. Zhang, T., Kong, L., Dai, Y., Yue, X., Rong, J., Qiu, F., & Pan, J. (2017).
Enhanced oils and organic solvents absorption by polyurethane foams
composites modified with MnO2 nanowires. Chemical Engineering
Journal, 309, 7-14. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2016.08.085
9. Ziolli, R. L., & Jardim, W. F. (2002). Photocatalytic decomposition of
seawater-soluble crude-oil fractions using high surface area colloid
nanoparticles of TiO2. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A:
Chemistry, 147(3), 205-212. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1010-
6030(01)00600-1

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