Webinars

The United Nations has an ambitious sustainable development goal to achieve safe drinking water for all by 2030. However, about 26% of people still lack access to safe drinking water. One of the major causes of this issue is water pollution. Synthetic dyes, which are colorants widely used in commercial products including textiles, leathers, paper, and food, are among the contaminants from industrial discharge that cause severe water pollution. In this webinar, learn about the development of a polymer and its application in removing synthetic textile dyes from water sources. It was found that the polymer removed textile dyes from aqueous solution resulting in visibly clean water. The process involved a simple two-phase extraction, in which polymer was dissolved in a solvent that is immiscible to water forming two phases (just like oil-water mixture). Once the polymer removed the dyes from the aqueous phase, the polymer can be separated from the dye. Interestingly, the recovered polymer can be used repeatedly for removing more dyes from aqueous samples. This work illustrates that polymeric materials have great potential to effectively remove such contaminants from water resources and improve water quality.