(6at) Application of Room Temperature Ionic Liquids in Membrane Based Technology: An Unconventional Green Separation | AIChE

(6at) Application of Room Temperature Ionic Liquids in Membrane Based Technology: An Unconventional Green Separation

Authors 

Sengupta, A. - Presenter, University of Arkansas
Research Interests:

Research Interest: In view of the environmental concern associated with the volatile organic compounds, ionic liquids (IL) gained a world-wide acceptance as potential ‘green’ alternatives to the conventional solvents due to the favourable properties like low vapour pressure, wide liquid range, high degree of chemical, thermal and radiation stability, high degree of solubility for a wide range of organic, inorganic and polymeric materials, large electrochemical window etc. This type of ionic, low lattice energy compounds exhibits unique properties, which otherwise are not observed for conventional chemicals. For example, in hydrometallurgy, conventionally the metal ion gets extracted from aqueous to conventional molecular diluent by predominance of ‘solvation mechanism’; while application of IL results the predominance of ‘ion exchange mechanism’. In electrochemistry, some uncommon oxidation state of metal ion can be achieved due to large potential window of IL, which otherwise cannot be formed in conventional medium. The most attractive property of IL is the high degree of tunnability. A small change either in cationic or anionic part can bring drastic change in the physicochemical properties of IL and hence its property can be fine-tuned based on its applications, provided the structure-activity relationship is established. In view of such technological importance and unique tunable properties, IL has been considered in present case. On the other hand, membrane technology provides clean energy intensive technology with ease of commercial scale adaptation finds application in aqueous, non-aqueous and biomedical field. The conventional membrane based separations (pressure driven filtration: UF, NF, MF and diffusion based: FO, RO, MD) are mainly based on the size exclusion principle. Fouling is one of the major challenges face by membrane technologies. In view of both these facts, coupling of unique properties of ILs/ PILs with the membrane technology for unconventional separation to be the main aim of future research directions. Broadly, three projects are as follows

  1. Pi electron mediated separation and fractionation of aromatics from aliphatic for both aqueous and non-aqueous applications using IL/ PILs. Establishing the structure-activity relationship. Achieving isomeric separation with IL based membranes. The high affinity of ionic liquid towards pi electron cloud density will be utilized in order to separate aromatics from aliphatic compounds, which otherwise is impossible based on size exclusion principle. The influence of inductive and resonance effect on enhancing electron cloud density and subsequent affinity towards ionic liquid will be investigated. The influence of stereo-chemical arrangement can lead to change in planner conformation of particular stereoisomer and hence can have influence on the delocalization of pi electron cloud. This fact will be exploited in order to separate stereoisomers mutually, which is difficult and not possible by conventional membrane based separation.
  2. Synthesis of anti-fouling, antimicrobial responsive membrane for mitigating concentration polarization based on ILs/PILs. To break concentration polarization, micromixing induced by applied oscillating electric field will be exploited by suitably induce electrical responsiveness on membrane surface through grafting of PIL on membrane surface. Oscillating electric field frequency, surface density of responsive elements, length of grafting polymer will be optimized. Exploiting the antimicrobial characteristic of imidazolium moieties, such characteristic will be induced on membrane for task specific applications. Moreover, structure-activity relationship will be established to get optimum desired performance.
  3. As an electrolyte in fuel cell applications focusing on Li-S battery to mitigate polysufide shuttle effect. The

Research Experience:

Joined Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India in 2008 as Scientific Officer and received 2 departmental promotions in 2010 and 2014.

Present: Post-doctoral fellow, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas under Prof. Ranil Wickramasinghe (from 2016 to present)

Ph. D.: Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, India, 2011-2015

No of Publications journals: 134 (Citation: 1358, h index 18)

One book chapter on magnetic responsive membrane in Royal Society, coauthored by Xianghong Qian and Dr. Ranil Wickramasinghe

Mentoring: 11 undergraduate, 1 Master and 4 Ph. D students

Teaching Interests:

Each student has an extraordinary talent in some direction. I believe the responsibility of a teacher/mentor is to identify that and makes him/her realize the same. I also believe that not only the bookish knowledge, the mentor should help students for their intellectual growth, enhancement in analytical aptitude, cultivating the leadership quality, making them socially responsible and helpful to others. I would be most interested in teaching classes such as: Separation Science (Solvent extraction, Chromatography, Membrane based separation, Spectroscopy, Statistical analysis of data), Inorganic chemistry (f- block element chemistry and spectroscopy and bonding), Polymer chemistry and Reaction kinetics and thermodynamics

I am open to teach any courses within the chemistry/chemical engineering curriculum. While it will be important to successfully start my research program, I would like to eventually develop a course on green chemistry for the separation of environmental pollutants and toxic elements.

Experience: I was guest lecturer on behalf of Dr. Ranil Wickramasinghe for the Chemical Engineering course: Advance Reactor Engineering in University of Arkansas for graduate students

Selected Publications

  1. Jebur, Arijit Sengupta, Y-H Chiao, M. Kamaz, X. Qian, R. Wickramasinghe, J Membr Sci, 2018, 556, 1-11 (corresponding author)
  2. M. Carter, Arijit Sengupta, X. Qian, M. Ulbricht, S. R. Wickramasinghe, J Membr Sci, 2018, 554, 109-116
  3. Arijit Sengupta, A. Bhattacharyya, Sk. M. Ali, W. Verboom, P.K. Mohapatra, J Phys Chem, 2017, 121 (12) 2640-2649
  4. Arijit Sengupta, Singha Deb, K. Dasgupta, V. C. Adya and M. Ali Sheikh, New J Chem, 2017, 41 (11), 4531-4545 (corresponding author)
  5. K. Mohapatra, Arijit Sengupta, M. Iqbal, J. Huskens, W. Verboom, Inorg. Chem., 2003, 52 (5), 2533–2541.
  6. K. Mohapatra, Arijit Sengupta, M. Iqbal, J. Huskens, W. Verboom, Chem A Euro J, 2013, 19(9), 3230–3238.