Competitive Advantages
- Selectivity towards target metals
- Enhanced cost and removal effectiveness
- Faster than state-of-the-art
- Recyclable agents reduce costs further
Summary
USF inventors have successfully developed a novel agent which has enhanced effectiveness in the removal of these heavy metals. The process is a new chelation strategy using dendrimer-based composite materials to separate biologically-relevant metal cations. The use of dendrimers for metal chelation allows selectivity towards target metals. In addition, a support material shell encapsulates the dendrimers to ease separation from the product. Experimental verification shows that the enhanced agent reaches removal equilibrium in high metal ion concentrations within an hour. This technology is applicable to many emerging industries which focus on the removal of heavy metals. It could be used in wastewater treatment plants, pharmaceutical industries, and environmental remediation of automobile emissions, mining activities, battery manufacturing, fossil fuels, metal plating, and electronic industries.
Coating Dendrimer to Grow Exemplary Mesoporous Silica with Enhanced Chelation
Desired Partnerships
- License
- Sponsored Research
- Co-Development