My research interest lies in the area of environmental chemistry and water/wastewater treatment techniques. I favour interdisciplinary approaches to pollution questions and have incorporated material science with engineering aspects for designing sustainable adsorbents to target water-related environmental issues.
My doctoral research encompasses many aspects of wastewater treatment (WWT) techniques including (i) the adsorption of dyes and metal ions onto nanocomposites: this study synthesized novel adsorbents by impregnating nanoparticles onto biopolymers (chitin, chitosan and alginate), characterized and tested in a small-scale batch/column system for the removal of targeted contaminants from aqueous medium under variable operating conditions. A sorption/desorption study revealed that the developed nanocomposites caused stronger sorption for the pollutants and can provide the sustainable approach of waste product utilization for the treatment of wastewater to achieve the SDG 6; and (ii) the potential of an electrochemical destruction method to be of pollutants: this study devoted to the simultaneous sorption and electrochemical destruction of dyes from wastewater. Overall, my research has elucidated and rationalized the knowledge of the mechanisms for pollutants removal/destruction.
Future research work will be extended in the areas like, in-situ solutions for legacy and emerging water contaminants remediation and pilot-scale simulation studies.
Awards & Fellowships
2022 to 2023 – MOPGA-4 PDF, Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Universite Savoie Mont Blanc, France.
2021 to 2023 – CSIR-RA, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India, KSKV Kachchh University, India.
Jun 2017 to Oct 2017 – Newton-Bhabha Ph.D. Fellow, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India and British Council, University of Manchester, UK.
2015 to 2018 – INSPIRE Senior Research Fellow, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, Gujarat University, India.
2013 to 2015 – INSPIRE Junior Research Fellow, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, Gujarat University, India.
