Our group has worked on many aspects of environment and sustainability over the years. Recycling of battery has been one of our focus although developing green methods for recycling several materials is of interest. Utilization of waste materials (e.g. biowaste) for products such as protein based food coatings are part of our effort. PFAS removal using membranes made COFs and other hybrid materials is being pursued and the degradation of PFAS in water using catalysts is of interest. Our group has also been part of the water institute at Rice and has developed coatings and materials to enable more efficient membranes for water purification and desalination.
Important Publications on "Sustainability and Environment"
  1. W. Gao, M. Majumder, L. B Alemany, T. N Narayanan, M. A Ibarra, B. K Pradhan, P. M. Ajayan, "Engineered graphite oxide materials for application in water purification", ACS applied materials & interfaces, 3(6), 1821-1826 (2011).
  2. Y. Yang, R. Zhao, T. Zhang, K. Zhao, P. Xiao, Y. Ma, P. M. Ajayan, G. Shi, Y. Chen, "Graphene-based standalone solar energy converter for water desalination and purification", ACS nano, 12(1), 829-835 (2018).
  3. K. Zuo, W. Wang, A. Deshmukh, S. Jia, H. Guo, R. Xin, M. Elimelech, P. M. Ajayan, J. Lou, Q. Li, “Multifunctional nanocoated membranes for high-rate electrothermal desalination of hypersaline waters”, Nature nanotechnology, 15(12), 1025-1032 (2020).
  4. D. Yu, Q. Shao, Q. Song, J. Cui, Y. Zhang, B. Wu, L. Ge, Y. Wang, Y. Zhang, Y. Qin, R. Vajtai, P. M. Ajayan, H. Wang, T. Xu, Y. Wu, "A solvent-assisted ligand exchange approach enables metal-organic frameworks with diverse and complex architectures", Nature communications, 11(1), 927 (2020).
  5. P. J Boul, P. M. Ajayan, "Nanotechnology research and development in upstream oil and gas", Energy Technology, 8(1), 1901216 (2020).
  6. S. Jung, Y. Cui, M. Barnes, C. Satam, S. Zhang, R. A Chowdhury, A. Adumbumkulath, O. Sahin, C. Miller, S. M Sajadi, L. M Sassi, Y. Ji, M. R Bennett, M. Yu, J. Friguglietti, F. A Merchant, R. Verduzco, S. Roy, R. Vajtai, J. C. Meredith, J. P Youngblood, N. Koratkar, M. M. Rahman, P. M. Ajayan, "Multifunctional bio‐nanocomposite coatings for perishable fruits", Advanced Materials, 32(26), 1908291 (2020).
  7. MASR Saadi, P. A Advincula, Md S. H. Thakur, A. Z. Khater, S. Saad, A. S. Zeraati, S. K. Nabil, A. Zinke, S. Roy, M. Lou, S. N Bheemasetti, Md A. Al Bari, Y. Zheng, J. L Beckham, V. Gadhamshetty, A. Vashisth, Md Golam Kibria, J. M Tour, P. M. Ajayan, M. M. Rahman, “Sustainable valorization of asphaltenes via flash joule heating”, Science Advances, 8, eadd3555 (2023).
  8. J. P Daum, A. Ajnsztajn, S. A. Iyengar, J. Lowenstein, S. Roy, G. Gao, E. HR Tsai, P. M. Ajayan, R. Verduzco, “Solutions Are the Problem: Ordered Two-Dimensional Covalent Organic Framework Films by Chemical Vapor Deposition”, ACS nano, 17(21), 21411-21419 (2023).