Author: Salah Alboaiji
Alboaiji, Salah, 2017 Porous Polysulfide Polymer in Removing Perfluorooctanoic acid from Water and Extracting Gold, Flinders University, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences
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The aim of this project was to synthesis a porous polysulfide polymer from sulfur and canola oil. Sulfur is an industrial by-product and waste, canola oil is a cooking oil and renewable product. Porous surface is made by adding NaCl to the reaction of polysulfide polymer. This project has two sections. In the first section, porous polysulfide polymer will be used for removing PFOA from water for environmental remediation. Water that is free from toxic compounds is necessary everywhere, at all times. PFOA is persist in the environment, therefore using inexpensive technology to eliminate toxic compounds such as PFOA from ecosystem is beneficial. In the second section the binding of Au(III) to the porous polysulfide polymer was examined. Artisanal and small scale gold mining collect huge amounts of gold, but uses mercury to capture the gold from ore. Mercury methods pollute communities and badly effects miners and their families. Small scale gold miners are in need of inexpensive technology that have gold binding properties. Porous polysulfide polymer is a safe technology and mercury-free method to be used to extract gold from ore in small scale gold mining, therefore the dangerous technique will be replaced by porous polysulfide polymer eliminating pollution, increasing safety for miners and being to remediate our environment. Several techniques and instrument will be used to characterise the data. Instruments includes SEM, EDS, 19F NMR, ICPOES, XRD, and STA.
Keywords: PFOA,Gold,Polysulfide
Subject: Nanotechnology thesis
Thesis type: Masters
Completed: 2017
School: School of Chemical and Physical Sciences
Supervisor: Justin Chalker