Research Proposal Optimum Enp For Oil Spill Remediation.

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†¦show more content†¦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 impleme ntation 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 13.2 kG and 42 MG  · Oe, respectively) will be used for magnetic force measurement using F_m= ∆mg.