Session: Undergraduate Research Posters: Green Chemistry & Sustainability:

The growing use of hydraulic fracking has resulted in an exponential increase in ground water pollution resulting from the deposition of heavy metals into underground aquifers. Currently, no standardized processes exist to remediate these issues; therefore, utilizing biomass-based materials to sorb heavy metals from hard water is a viable option for resource cycling and wastewater remediation. Recycled biomass contains an abundance of cellulose, which must be chemically extracted via an acid catalyzed hydrolysis reaction prior to being incorporated with additional polysaccharides (i.e., alginate and agarose) to form a renewable composite matrix. By introducing cellulose to create a hybrid polymer network, the viscosity of the composite is increased due to the porous nature of the cellulose, thus optimizing the matrix for functionalization. This reinforced cellulose-polysaccharide composite serves as an ideal non-covalent network for the thermo and photochemical radical initiated polymerization of polyaniline, resulting in the formation of a functionalized conductive biopolymer composite. Initial results indicate that this reinforced conducting polymer system serves as a scaffold which can be used as the anode to electroplate various heavy metals, particularly Cu²⁺, and Cd²⁺.

Ian Deninger

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