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Novel Photocatalytic Fullerenes for Water & Wastewater Treatment & Disinfection

Detailed Technology Description: Novel Photocatalytic Agent for Water Treatment & Disinfection

*Abstract

Challenge

Buckminsterfullerenes (C60) are known to be powerful photocatalysts, but their low solubility in water presents a significant challenge in environmental and biomedical applications involving aqueous media.

Solution

Functionalizing C60 with hydrophilic moieties was found to produce a new class of materials with exceptional activity as photocatalytic disinfectants capable of inactivating pathogenic microorganisms and enhancing the oxidation of organic pollutants.

Benefits and Features

Exhibit significantly higher photo-induced antibacterial and antiviral activity than other commercially available nanomaterials
Enhances oxidative processes which destroy a wide variety of common organic pollutants, including carcinogens and endocrine disruptors, simultaneously with disinfection
Immobilized catalyst for facile recovery and recycle
No harmful by-products generated
Can be used to enhance waste-water treatment in UV and solar disinfection reactors, and in advanced oxidation process reactors

Market Potential / Applications

Water and waste-water treatment
Potential applications in air purification
Potential in antifouling or anticorrosion coatings
Potential in functionalizing membranes used for separation processes in food or beer industry, to make them easier to clean

Developments and Licensing Status

This technology is available for license from Rice University. The photochemical properties and photodynamic disinfection efficiencies of the novel materials have been quantitatively evaluated in the laboratory, in both suspended and attached form. They will be tested at the pilot scale in a commercial wastewater treatment plant in Guanajuato, Mexico, to disinfect the effluent.

A commercial sponsor is sought for additional research.

Rice Researcher
Pedro Alvarez is the George R. Brown Professor of Engineering and Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice University. He has received numerous awards in the area of environmental engineering and is a Diplomate of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and a Fellow of ASCE. For additional information see his website at http://alvarez.rice.edu/index.cfm

Lon Wilson is a member of the faculty in the Department of Chemistry at Rice University. His research focuses on the role of transition metal ions in biological processes and their use in medicine, along with applications of carbon nanostructures in medicine.

Yuri Mackeyev is a Research Scientist in the Lon Wilson Group at Rice University. He received his PhD from the Lomonosov Moscow State University in Russia in 2002.

Jaesang Lee is a post-doctoral researcher at Rice in the laboratories of Prof. Pedro Alvarez.

Technology Relevant Papers and Web Links
Jaesang Lee, Yuri Mackayev, Min Cho, Dong Li, Jae-Hong Kim, and Pedro Alvarez, "Photochemical and Antimicrobial Properties of Novel C60 Derivatives in Aqueous Systems," Environ. Sci. Technol., 2009, 43, 6604-6610.

Patent numbers: US 61/220,093 and US 61/256,043

Alvarez website: http://alvarez.rice.edu/
Wilson website: http://chem.rice.edu/facultydetail.cfm?RiceID=600

Inquiries to: Luba Pacala at lpacala@rice.edu or at 793.348.5590

Country/Region: USA

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