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Sustainable Utilization of Polymer Nanocomposites
Toward Environmental Remediation
By John Zhanhu Guo
The disposal of large amount of plastics wastes has caused environmental concerns in the last
few decades. Various alternative methods have been attempted to solve these problems, such as
land-filling, incineration and bio- and photo-degradation. However, all these approaches have
their inherent drawbacks. For example, landfill has environmental risks due to the chemical
inertness of the plastics. Incineration is not widely used primarily because of the concerns about
the toxic gaseous products and ashes, which only shifts a solid waste issue to an air pollution
problem. Recycling polymer wastes has been of great interest in terms of environment concerns
and economic feasibility during the last decade. Compared to the thermal pyrolysis, the catalytic
pyrolysis is preferred to improve the yield of valuable products, lower the reaction temperature
and increase the yield of gasoline (C5–C12) or alter the composition of the oil product. The
current challenge of the liquid fuel is to avoid the unsaturated components, which can be easily
oxidized and thus reduce the caloric value of the liquid fuel. In addition, these oxidized
structures may become acidic species which cause the corrosion of engines and generate
pollutants in the air. Acid and base promoted microporous iron catalysts and even enzyme
(candida antarctica lipase) were used in recycling different polymers to improve the product
yield and selectivity. However, catalyst deactivation by poisoning, fouling, thermal degradation
and attrition is of a great concern in the catalytic processes due to the huge cost for catalyst
replacement and process shutdown. A more stable catalyst is thus needed.
On the other side, rapid industrialization has led to an increased discharged wastewater
containing heavy metals, which have detrimental effects on the environment and human beings.
The new stringent EPA requirements have disabled current technologies if no advanced strategy
is adopted. Among the current deployed technologies, adsorption is favorable and feasible
because of its low cost and high efficiency. Though activated carbon is one of the adsorbents to
purify polluted water, it still failed to reduce the concentration of contaminants at ppb levels.
Novel adsorbents are needed to remove heavy metals satisfying the stringent EPA requirements.
In this talk, carbon nanocomposites from the polymer recycling, volatile collection and the solid
product for environmental remediation will be presented. Our recent advance in utilizing the
polymer nanocomposites for environmental remediation will also be addressed.
Short Biography
Dr. Guo, currently an Assistant Professor in Dan F. Smith Department of Chemical Engineering
at Lamar University, obtained a Chemical Engineering Ph.D. degree from Louisiana State
University (2005) and received three-year (2005-2008) postdoctoral training in Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering Department in University of California Los Angeles. Dr. Guo directs the
Integrated Composites Laboratory and has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed journal papers
and five patents. His current research focuses on multifunctional light-weight nanocomposites
especially with polymer and carbon as the hosting matrix.