ZnO-PHEMA@GO NANOCOMPOSITES: AN ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABLE MATERIAL FOR WATER TREATMENT

Due to rapid population growth and intensification of agricultural and industrial activities, a diverse array of hazardous pollutants is progressively entered in the aquatic system. Particularly, persistent organic contaminants such as pesticides, solvents, dyes, detergents and industrial chemicals, constitute a pressing ecological problem that poses a great threat to human health [1]. An eco-friendly and definitive process to eliminate contaminants from water is concerned on their complete mineralization by using photocatalytic approach [2], followed by an efficient and easily catalyst separation at the end of the process. In light of this, we have formulated a novel multifunctional super-adsorbent sponge based on poly-2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate/graphene oxide (pHEMA@GO) composite developed by a cryo-polymerization in water [3]. In addition, taking advantages by the hydroxyl pendant groups present on both HEMA and GO moieties, our strategy involves the use of the sponge as a platform to link covalently ZnO by using Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). This step can provide them the ability to degrade pollutants via photocatalytic process after the adsorption.