A seminar at the Physics Department about water desalination by using nano technology presented by Dr. Jaaber MuHammad Al-Ghoul.
The Scientific Committee at the Physics Department organized its fourth seminar of the academic year 1436 / 1437 AH entitled:
"Synthesis and Development of Osmotic Thin Film Membrane Reached by ZnO Nano particles for Water Desalination"
The seminar was given by Dr. Jaaber Al-Ghoul, assistant professor of the Physics Department, That was from 11:00 to 11:30 a.m., on Tuesday, 05 Muharram, 1437 AH - 17 November, 2015 AD.
Dr. Jaber started his talk by mentioning the importance of water and its shortage in some Arab countries. On another hand, he stated that KSA had the biggest desalination plants in the world, and that the Kingdom adopted the latest creative systems of water processing for human use. Dr. Al-Ghoul focused His speech on how to develop permeable membranes in which some types of polymers are used by adding zinc oxide composition of nanoparticles for its antibacterial feature. It is also added in proper concentrations to avoid Clogging of the porous in the permeable membrane. Dr. Al-Ghoul also ascertained that the size of the particles is about twenty nanometer. In conclusion, staff members and students took part in the discussion, which contributed to enrich it and make it more interesting.
For more information, please see the seminar briefing below:
Abstract:
Among the most important reasons for the increasing demand on desalinated seawater is the shortage of natural resources of drinking water.
Among the most promising and used methods of sea and salty water desalination is filtration using membranes and this is based on reversed osmosis. These membranes are composed of active thin layers usually made by porous support. Among the most used membranes is polymer matrix with inorganic materials due to its response to water and some of its functions, which help reduce pollutants passage ratio into water. The purpose of this project is making thin membranes from a nano-sized composite with zinc oxide. At the beginning of the project, we will begin manufacturing zinc oxide particles by the developed sol-gel method using crucial conditions of ethylene which is the proper method to synthesize non-organic oxides, its glass characteristics can be changed by thermal treatment. In the second stage, we will manufacture thin membranes grafted with nanoparticles by the method of soaking in water solution of MPO then in TMC which are rich in nano oxide zinc. To get optimal samples, the operation will be repeated at different concentrations of zinc oxide. Then, the best samples will be diagnosed by using several devices like TEM, SEM, XPS, XRD, and EDX. After studying the experimental findings, we notice the effect of zinc on the most important features of membranes such as connection angle, flow, and salt rejection.