Search

Discharges from pharmaceutical sectors into water bodies are major environmental issue as most of them are persistent in nature and causes endocrine disruption. Treatment processes presently undertaken are not effective in complete removal of these contaminants. Removal study of ibuprofen has been undertaken by adsorption and nanofiltration membrane whereas little knowledge of atenolol separation by membrane has been reported. Ceramic ultrafiltration membrane developed from green synthesized zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) was employed in this present study for removal of atenolol and ibuprofen drugs from synthetic solution. About 96 % and 99 % removal of atenolol and ibuprofen respectively was obtained by single step ultrafiltration process. UF membrane developed had surface area of 21.503 m2/g and pore diameter of 39.8 A. X-ray diffraction study of unsupported membrane showed pure phase crystalline zinc oxide particles. The effect of different parameters viz., TMP (Transmembrane pressure), time, feed concentration etc. on membrane filtration efficiency was analyzed by RSM (Response Surface Methodology). Germination studies on Vigna mungo was performed using untreated atenolol and ibuprofen solutions and membrane treated permeate to assess the membrane efficiency of producing clean water suitable for reuse. The study revealed higher germination rate in presence of ibuprofen solution but lower germination for atenolol solution. Protein content on the other hand were highly affected in both ibuprofen and atenolol solution. Seeds germinated in membrane permeate showed better germination rate and protein content and comparable to that of control. more...

Industrial and domestic discharges are contaminating surface water via bacterial infestations. Therefore, the present study focused on application of biogenically derived nanoparticles for elimination of such contaminants from water. Green synthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) by algal extract resulted in formation of nanoparticles with particle size of 3.6 nm. Effect of pH, concentration of algal extract, stirring speed and initial Cu2+ concentration, was studied and optimized. The synthesized particles showed antimicrobial activity against gram negative bacteria, Escherichia coli. Optimized dose of 50 μg/mL of NPs were found to be effective against Escherichia coli in surface water samples. Toxicity assay on fish model was conducted to analyze the probable toxic effect of CuO NPs on living system by observing formation of micronuclei in fish blood. No micronuclei were observed in fish blood after exposure to CuO NPs for 30 days. Cell death assay was conducted on mammalian cell lines, including human gastric epithelium (AGS) and Chinese hamster ovarian (CHO) by MTT (3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide) assay which showed that cells had toxic effect of CuO NPs above 2.5% concentration indicating the potential use of the green synthesized CuO NPs in drinking water applications. more...