Inverse Gas Chromatography (IGC-SEA) for Chicken Feather Mat Characterization

Date: Thursday 17 December 2020
Time:  15:00 GMT | 16:00 CET | 10:00 EST
Duration: 30 mins + Q&A
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Presenter:
  Kaine Chinwah
2nd Year PhD Student
Imperial College London

We’re really excited about this one! Our guest speaker, 2nd year PhD student Kaine Chinwah, recently conducted some fresh research into the surface properties of chicken feathers, and their potential for vital use as a sorbent in combatting Oil pollution.
Employing iGC-SEA to conduct her study, this webinar will cover never-before-seen results and analysis in an area of vital global importance.

Abstract

Oil pollution, from anthropogenic exploration activities, constitutes a serious risk to water resources globally. Different conventional sorbents have been used to remove oily contaminants from affected water bodies with varying degrees of success. In recent years, natural sorbents such as kapok fibres, rice husks and chicken feathers have been explored as a substitute to conventional sorbents because they are cheaper, abundantly available and provide a means to develop a circular economy. The oil sorption capacity of these fibres is determined by their surface chemistry and microstructure – surface properties.

In this study, Inverse Gas Chromatography (IGC-SEA) was utilised to evaluate the surface properties of chicken feather mat – a natural sorbent and polypropylene pad – a synthetic organic sorbent. The BET, dispersive/specific (acid-base) surface energies, specific free energies of adsorption and thermodynamic work of cohesion and adhesion for chicken feather mat and polypropylene pad were measured. The surface profiles demonstrated that both sorbents were energetically heterogenous. However, the chicken feather mat surface energy profiles showed comparable values to the conventional polypropylene pad, widely used as an oil sorbent

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About our speaker

Kaine is a second year PhD student in Environmental Engineering at the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Petrochemical Engineering from the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (Nigeria), MSc in Environmental Engineering & Business Management from Imperial College London. Kaine’s research is on Novel oil sorption materials produced from waste feathers, which includes characterisation of material, field trial for oil sorption potential and establishing market opportunities in developing countries with a focus to promote a circular economy.