Smart Nanomaterials for Environmental Applications

Dr. O.O. Ayeleru is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Nanoengineering and Advanced Material, Department of Engineering Metallurgy, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He obtained his B.Eng. degree in Chemical Engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria, and MTech. and PhD degrees from the University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. His field of research is in the Advanced Materials Synthesis, Municipal Solid Waste Management, Soft-Computing Applications, Fruit and Vegetable Research, Water and Wastewater Treatment, Electrical Energy Consumption and Renewable Energy Research. He was part of the team who developed a Feasibility Study Report on Biomethane Generation from Municipal Organic Solid Waste for the City of Johannesburg in 2016 and is a co-innovator of a patented innovation (filed in South Africa). Azeez Olayiwola Idris obtained his BSc in Industrial Chemistry from the Ekiti State University (Nigeria) and MSc and PhD from the University of Johannesburg (South Africa). He is the recipient of a Doctorate Student Award for his oral presentation at the 2017 South African Chemical Institute. He specializes in the synthesis, characterization, and application of smart nanomaterials for sensors, biosensors, photocatalysis, photoelectrochemical degradation, and water treatment. He is a member of the American Chemical Society, the South African Chemical Institute, and the South African Nanotechnology Initiative. Sadanand Pandey is a Professor in the School of Bioengineering and Food Technology at Shoolini University. He brings over 12 years of expertise to the field of Materials Science, specialising in organic-inorganic nanocomposites with applications in water purification, nanosensors, energy, and biomedicine. He completed his PhD at the University of Allahabad and then became a UGC-Kothari fellow at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He continued his academic journey with international experiences, including a research professorship at Yeungnam University in South Korea from 2019 to 2023. He also had a stint at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, from 2014 to 2018. Throughout his career, he received prestigious fellowships, including the DST/NRF Innovation Fellowship in South Africa, Dr Kothari's Postdoctoral Fellowship in India, and JRF and SRF fellowships from DST, India. He contributed significantly to research projects funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the Korea Institute of Marine Science & Technology Promotion (KIMST) in South Korea. His primary research areas include polymer science, nanotechnology, and nanocomposites, composite materials, and surface modification. His recent work has explored hydrogels for applications in nutrient recovery, controlled drug delivery, water purification, and biomedicine. He has also delved into the development of photocatalysts with implications for nanotechnology, energy research, and environmental science. Prof. Pandey has authored more than 250 publications in peer-reviewed journals and international conferences. His scholarly contributions have garnered more than 9000 citations on Google Scholar in the past five years. Additionally, he is a guest editor for various scientific journals, including Materials Letters, Frontier in Chemistry, Biosensors, Chemosensors, Water, Materials, Molecules, and Polymers. He is an active member of scientific communities, including The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the American Chemical Society, the Indian Science Congress Association (ISC), and the Materials Research Society of India (MRSI). He has received the Young Scientist award at the Indian Science Congress in India and has been recognised among the top 2% of scientists worldwide for year (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 & 2023) in subject-wise analyses conducted by Stanford University. He has also authored more than 20 book chapters on advanced materials and technology for esteemed publishers in the USA. He has presented at numerous domestic and international conferences. Pandey has reviewed over 2000 articles while serving as a reviewer for over 300 internationally renowned scientific journals and research foundations. Professor Peter Olubambi obtained BEng (Hons), MEng and PhD in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. He is a Professor of Materials Engineering and is presently the Director of the Centre for Nanoengineering and Advanced Materials, as well as the Head of the School of Mining, Metallurgy and Chemical Engineering at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). His research activities focus on three key and interrelated fields of advanced materials processing; Powder Metallurgy, Nanomechanics and Tribocorrosion. His research efforts centered on the utilization of innovative powder metallurgical techniques for developing nanoengineered materials for automotive, aerospace, microelectronics, mines, energy storage, chemical and allied industries as well as for biomedical applications. He is a vibrant scholar and an NRF-rated researcher (C2). Through the various funding he has attracted, he has established a hi-tech powder metallurgy research laboratory at the Tshwane University of Technology, and the laboratories for Nanoengineering and Advanced Materials Research at UJ. He is an editorial board member of two international journals, a reviewer to many high impact factor journals, and has served as an organizing committee member to many local and international conferences. Over the past 10 years, he has graduated 36 master’s students, 22 doctoral students, and mentored six postdoctoral research fellows; 16 of these young, multicultural, and multinational persons currently hold academic positions as lecturers, senior lecturers, and associate professors within the South African HEI sector and outside South Africa. Prof Olubambi is currently supervising and co-supervising 21 doctoral students, 19 master’s students and mentoring 11 postdoctoral research fellows.

Part I: Foundational advances
1. Introduction to smart nanocomposites for environmental remediation
2. Introduction to environmental needs and requirements
3. Nanotechnology Characterization: Emerging Techniques for Accurate and Reliable Nanostructural Analysis
4. Measurements to address nano-characterization challenges
5. Smart nanomaterials: fundamentals, synthesis, and characterization

Part II: Various Environmental Applications
6. Newer preparation methods relating to smart nanomaterial solutions and environmental science
7. Electrochemical studies on environmental issues in the manufacturing industries
8. Synthesis of various analogues of carbon nanomaterials
9. Eco-friendly synthesis of analogues of nanomaterials and selection of the right nanomaterials for environmental applications
10. Intelligent nanomaterials for electrochemical detection of heavy metals
11. Quantification of toxic organic pollutants by electrochemical methods
12. Nanomaterials for sensing pharmaceuticals
13. Advanced nanomaterials as noble catalysts for environmental applications
14. Solar light-responsive nanomaterials for the photo-electrocatalytic degradation of stubborn pollutants

Part III: Water and wastewater treatment
15. Water and wastewater treatment in developed and developing countries: present experience and future plans
16. Application of nanomaterials as remediation solutions in wastewater treatment
17. Detection of pharmaceuticals pollutants in wastewater
18. Fabrication and characterization of nanostructures from waste polymers for water and wastewater treatment
19. Fabrication and characterization of mixed matrix membranes obtained from plastic waste-derived carbon nanotubes in wastewater treatment
20. Nano-enhanced filters/membranes: preparation, properties, and application for water purification
21. Transport, Fate, and Detection of Personal Care Products (PCPs) in Domestic wastewater
22. Biopolymer-based Hydrogel Nanocomposites for Water Remediation
23. Nature-based solutions: Opportunities and challenges for water treatment
24. A global review of heavy metal pollutants detected in waterways (marine, brackish and fresh) using innovative artificial mussel (AM) technology

Part IV: Impact and future outlook of smart nanomaterials
25. Case studies of specific applications of smart nanomaterials for wastewater purification (3 different case studies)
26. Review on wastewater treatment studies by smart boron nitride nanomaterial systems
27. Development of Smart Nanomaterials from Tea Waste and their Environmental Applications: Recent Advances, Challenges, and Perspectives
28. Smart nanomaterials with synergistic effects by utilizing heterojunctions on different dimensional scales
29. Environmental impact, potential risks, and sensitivity assessment for examining exposure routes of smart nanomaterials
30. Challenges and future direction prospect of smart nanomaterial for environmental remediation