Mika Sillanpää

University of Johannesburg | uj · Department of Chemical Engineering

The adsorption of Cd²⁺ and Co²⁺ using alginic acid (AA) was performed by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. To validate the theoretical findings, Cd²⁺ and Co²⁺ were extracted from aqueous solutions using brown algae, where AA constituted the major component. The study encompassed both experimental and theoretical aspects, addressing sing...

Catalysts played a crucial role in advancing modern human civilization, from ancient times to the industrial revolution. Due to high cost and limited availability of traditional catalysts, there is a need to develop cost-effective, high-activity, and nonprecious metal-based electrocatalysts. Metal−organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as an ideal...

This work investigates the applicability of clinoptilolite, a natural zeolite, as a low-cost adsorbent for removing chromium from aqueous solutions using fixed bed studies. To improve its removal performance for the inorganic pollutant, the adsorbent is pretreated with NaCl to prepare it in the homoionic form of Na+ before undertaking ion exchange...

The selective electrochemical reduction of oxygen (O2) via 3e- pathway for the production of hydroxyl radicals (HO) is a promising alternative to conventional electro-Fenton process. Here, we developed a nitrogen-doped CNT-encapsulated Ni nanoparticle electrocatalyst (Ni@N-CNT) with high O2 reduction selectivity for the generation of HO•via 3e- pat...

Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) addition to soil enhances the properties of soil and increase plant yields. Investigation of the efficacy of SAPs to reduce the rate of mineral fertilizers and produce high-quality grapes was the study’s main goal. This investigation was carried out for three seasons (2019, 2020, and 2021) in a private vineyard locate...

The world’s daily increase in population has become ravenous for natural resources for energy and potentially helps to become the main reason for causing global climate change. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the critical elements of the greenhouse gas effect, as we all know. Last few decades, researchers have been much interested in CO2 capture and...

This work prepared a composite of orange peels magnetic activated carbon (MG-OPAC). The prepared composite was categorized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and vibrating-sample magnetometer (VSM) an...

The degradation of dyes is a difficult task due to their persistent and stable nature; therefore, developing materials with desirable properties to degrade dyes is an important area of research. In the present study, we propose a simple, one-pot mechanochemical approach to synthesize CuO nanoparticles (NPs) using the leaf extract of Seriphidium oli...

In the current research work, an electrochemically polymerized glutamine-clustered graphite paste electrode surface was developed for the electrochemical detection of hazardous catechol (CL) molecules. The cyclic voltammetric (CV) method was operated for the detection of redox activities of CL in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) of pH 7.0 on the sur...

The sensitive, economical, green, and simple voltammetric sensor for the detection of the redox behaviour of rutin (RT) was prepared by the electrochemical polymerization approach. The constructed polymerized DL‐phenylalanine (DL‐PN) modified graphene paste electrode (MGPE) and bare graphene paste electrode (BGPE) were elucidated using cyclic volta...

The influx of emerging, prescribed, and FDA approved pharmaceutical contaminants (PCs) in the environment is continuously affecting human health and human cycle (even at trace amount) via contaminating water and aquatic life. Among them, non-degradable water-soluble residues which have been integrated with water streams and groundwater is a serious...

Unlabelled: Management of hospital wastewater is a challenging task, particularly during the situations like coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The hospital effluent streams are likely to contain many known and unknown contaminants including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) along with a variety of pollutants arising...

Adsorption is the most widely used technique for advanced wastewater treatment. The preparation and application of natural renewable and environmentally friendly materials makes this process easier and more profitable. Chitosan is often used as an effective biomaterial in the adsorption world because of its numerous functional applications. Chitosa...

The introduction of unintended oil spills into the marine ecosystem has a signifcant impact on aquatic life and raises impor tant environmental concerns. The present review summarizes the recent studies where nanocomposites are applied to treat oil spills. The review deals with the techniques used to fabricate nanocomposites and identify the charac...

The introduction of unintended oil spills into the marine ecosystem has a signifcant impact on aquatic life and raises important environmental concerns. The present review summarizes the recent studies where nanocomposites are applied to treat oil spills. The review deals with the techniques used to fabricate nanocomposites and identify the charact...

Background Food hygiene is one of the specialized fields of environmental health, and despite the problems associated with foodborne illnesses, there is no evaluation available that would focus on specialized environmental health journals. The purpose of the present survey is a comparison of the status of food hygiene articles published in Iranian...

Developing facile strategies for anchoring transition-metal nanoparticles (M-NPs) on support materials to make their easy handling, and nascent technologies to advance their applications towards large scale sustainable catalysis are highly demanding. Herein, one-pot strategy is reported for the in-situ immobilization of palladium nanoparticles (Pd-...

Natural organic matter (NOM) is a complex matrix of organic substances present in various aquatic ecosystems through intricate geological, hydrological and biological cycles. Such variability, along with the important increase of its concentration in fresh waters and municipal wastewater effluents, makes the removal of NOM and its constituents from...

For the surface adsorption process, a wide range of studies have been carried out to describe the adsorption process. However, no extensive study has been carried out to investigate the pre-treatment method effect on the separation process. The purpose of the present study is to improve the performance of the membrane process in the treatment of oi...

Rutin (RU) is one of the best-known natural antioxidants with various physiological functions in the human body and other plant species. In this work, an efficient voltammetric sensor to detect RU in food samples was explicated using a poly (glutamic acid)-modified graphene paste electrode (PGAMGPE). In order to detect RU, the proposed sensor dimin...

Breast cancer is categorized as the most widespread cancer type among women globally. On‐time diagnosis can decrease the mortality rate by making the right decision in the therapy procedure. These features lead to a reduction in medication time and socioeconomic burden. The current review article provides a comprehensive assessment for breast cance...

Only scarce information is available about the abundance of microplastics (MPs) in Nordic lakes. In this study, the occurrence, types, and distribution of MPs were assessed based on the lake water and sediment samples collected from a sub-basin of Lake Saimaa, Finland. The main goal was to estimate the possible effect of the local wastewater treatm...

Vanillin (VLN) is generally used in bakery food products as an aroma enhancer and flavoring agent. Hence it is important to develop a powerful and rapid tool to monitor the concentration of VLN levels concerning food safety. In this paper, a simple sensor was proposed by electropolymerized Aspartic acid (ASP) modified on Graphene and Graphite compo...

Anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) is one of the most advanced water treatment technologies that might contribute to overcome exponential water demand in many regions around the world. AnMBR technology converts wastewater (WW) to reasonable quality of permeate water which can be used for irrigation, produces energy in the form of biogas, and gen...

Herein, catalyst-free, eco-friendly, photo-triggered, self-degradation of malachite green (MG) and crystal violet (CV) dyes in comparison to photocatalytic degradation were investigated. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic study to demonstrate the reactive oxygen species (ROS), electron (e−) and hole (h+) generation ability o...

Background A balanced and optimized amount of nutrients in bread, which is the main food in many countries, is necessary to maintain human health. Considering the importance of nutritional values of bread in the food basket of Iranian households, the purpose of this study was to determine the nutrients and their concentrations in breads consumed in...

Certain dyes are deleterious to the biological system, including animals and plants living in the water sources, soil sources, and so on. Thus, the analysis of these dyes requires a potent, quick, and cost-effective approach to the environmental samples. The present research work shows a modest, low-cost, and eco-friendly electrochemical device bas...

In the present work, we prepared MgO-La2O3-mixed-metal oxides (MMO) as efcient photocatalysts for degradation of organic pollutants. First, a series of MgAl-%La-CO3-layered double hydroxide (LDH) precursors with diferent contents of La (5, 10, and 20 wt%) were synthesized by the co-precipitation process and then calcined at 600 °C. The prepared mat...

The vast improvements made by the human species in household, scientific, and commercial spheres come at the expense of environmental pollution. Due to its direct connection to all living forms, aquatic pollution is a severe issue. Tons of home and industrial contaminants enter aquatic systems every year; their proficient removal and degradation is...

A novel nanostructured Fenton-like catalyst based on La-doped MgFe2O4 for enhanced carbamazepine degradation was prepared by facile sol-gel synthesis. The physicochemical properties of the obtained catalyst were studied by DTA-TG, XRD, FTIR, SEM-EDX, TEM, and nitrogen adsorption-desorption methods. The effect of calcination temperature on the struc...

Antibiotics, as pollutants of emerging concern, can enter marine environments, rivers, and lakes and endanger ecology and human health. The purpose of this study was to review the studies conducted on the presence of antibiotics in water, sediments, and organisms in aquatic environments (i.e., seas, rivers, and lakes). Most of the reviewed studies...

In the last few decades, environmental contaminants (ECs) have been introduced into the environment at an alarming rate. There is a risk to human health and aquatic ecosystems from trace levels of emerging contaminants, including hospital wastewater (HPWW), cosmetics, personal care products, endocrine system disruptors, and their transformation pro...

This study reported the use of olive leaves Chemlali pruning waste (OLC) as biosorbent for Cr(VI) ions removal from aqueous solution via a batch process. An ideal experimental model was applied using central composite design (CCD) based on response surface methodology (RSM) to find the best operating conditions. The optimum removal efficiency of Cr...

The global increasing contamination of water resources with toxic heavy metals poses severe threats to human health and aqueous ecosystem. Therefore, it is of high significance to develop low-cost, feasible, and sustainable technologies for the heavy metal removal from wastewater. The membrane separation method possesses some of its great propertie...

Ionic liquids (ILs) are getting prominence as eco-sustainable solvents, especially as alternatives to existing mediums in chemical reactions because of the advantage of incredibly low vapor pressure, which makes them simple to preserve in a process. Although there are multiple advantages to adopting ILs, still some restrictions place a cap on their...

Ionic liquids (ILs) have been demonstrated as promising alternatives to conventional entrainers in separation of azeotropic mixtures mostly investigating phase equilibrium and process design scenarios. However, proper selection of ILs for a specific task always remains challenging. Hence a simulation tool, i.e. conductor like screening model for re...

The sulfate radical based advanced oxidation process (SR-AOP) is an emerging technology for the degradation of micropollutants with various advantages such as low cost, high efficiency, high availability, high capability, long lifespan, higher reaction rate, and redox potential. This review focuses on the chemistry and catalytic aspects of various...

Plants have been used for multiple purposes over thousands of years in various applications such as traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda. More recently, the special properties of phytochemicals within plant extracts have spurred researchers to pursue interdisciplinary studies uniting nanotechnology and biotechnology. Plant-mediated green synth...

Among cationic dyes, malachite green (MG) is commonly used for dying purposes and also as an inhibitor in aquaculture, food, health, and chemical industries due to its cytotoxic effects. Therefore, MG removal is essential to keep the ecosystem and human health safety. Adsorption is a viable and versatile option and exploring efficient adsorbents ha...

The nitrogen and sulphur oxide (NOx and SO2) emissions are causing a serious threat to the existence of life on earth, requiring their effective removal for a sustainable future. Among various approaches, catalytic or electrochemical reduction of air pollutants (NOx) has gained much attention due to its high efficiency and the possibility of conver...

Herein, a novel [email protected]2O3@TiO2 ([email protected]) composite containing different amounts of polyaniline was synthesized by in situ polymerization of aniline monomer in the presence of TF. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), BET surface area, Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray photoelectron...

Nowadays, the treatment of dyes and pigments was considered a serious challenge in the world. In this work, a novel high-performance magnetic bio-based κ-carrageenan-kaolinite hydrogel (CKAlFe) was designed, characterized, and used for the simultaneous adsorption of Alizarin red and Congo red dyes from an aqueous solution. The morphological charact...

This study aimed to determine the efficacy of novel ultrafiltration and mixed matrix membrane (MMM) composed of hydrous manganese oxide (HMO) and silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) for the removal of biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). In the polycarbonate (PC) MMM, the weight percent of HMO and Ag-NP has been increased from...

In the present study, a low-cost visibly active Fe-TiO2 composite was prepared using waste material for the degradation of Phenazone (PHZ) a pharmaceutical drug using a once-through plug flow reactor. The reactors in the series model were employed and their performance was evaluated using analysis of RTD and was further optimized and cross-checked...

The effects of selected process parameters in the biosorption of chromium (VI) ions for wastewater treatment using Aspergillus niger were studied whilst keeping temperature and pH constant. The biosorption capacity was observed to be optimum at 15 h contact time, 2.8 g biomass dose and 200 rpm agitation speed. The Jovanovic isotherm model best repr...

Access to clean water is a fundamental human right. However, due to the rapid urbanization and industrialization in many African countries, the emergence of a plethora of new classes of water contaminants coupled with aging wastewater treatment infrastructure and technologies, access to clean water has remained elusive especially to rural communiti...

The present study examined the adsorption of As(III) and As(V) (arsenics) from aqueous solutions using FeCl3 impregnated bagasse fly ash (BFA-Fe). Batch adsorption studies were carried out to evaluate the effect of various parameters like initial pH (pH0), adsorbent dose (m), contact time (t), initial concentration (C0) and temperature (T) on the r...

Colloidal gas aphrons (CGAs) are highly stable, spherical, micrometer-sized bubbles encapsulated by surfactant multilayers. They have several intriguing properties, including: high stability, large interfacial area, and the ability to maintain the same charge as their parent molecules. The physical properties of CGAs make them ideal for biotechnolo...

The demand for valuable metals such as rare earth elements and platinum group metals is rising fast in the context of the depletion of natural resources and international conficts. Moreover, the future circular economy requires that raw material be recycled from waste by advanced methods such as adsorption by innovative porous materials. Here, we r...

The formation of bulking and foaming in biological wastewater treatment could cause a series of operational issues with biomass and effluent quality, ultimately affect the treatment performance of the system. The essential parameters influencing the growth of bulking and foaming bacteria are comprehensively summarised in this paper. Existing bulkin...

The discovery of antimicrobial agents continues to develop in line with advances in materials science and technology, and in light of resistance to many pathogens. Nanoparticle-based materials ofer enhanced food preservation from foodborne patho- gens. In this study, the simple, eco-friendly and non-toxic synthesis of silver nanoparticles (GC-AgNP...