Pesticide Mineralization in Water Using Silver Nanoparticles Incorporated on Polyurethane Foam

In present day scenario, pesticides are widely used for pest control in agriculture, because of which, the drinking water sources (both surface and ground water) gets contaminated. Majority of the pesticides are defiant to biodegradation and are found to be carcinogenic in nature even at trace levels. Various conventional methods employed for removal of pesticide are surface adsorption, photo-catalysis, membrane separation and biodegradation. However, these methods have disadvantages such as time consumption and expensive. Application of nanoparticles alleviates both of the above mentioned drawbacks. The nanoparticles need to be incorporated on a support to prevent the presence of it in the purified water after mineralization of pesticides. Previous researchers employed activated carbon and alumina as support for silver nanoparticles in pesticide mineralization. However, not many studies have been carried out on polyurethane foam (PUF) as support for silver nanoparticles in the mineralization of pesticides (Chlorpyrifos & Malathion) in water. Hence, a detailed study has been carried out to estimate the mineralization potential of silver nanoparticles supported on PUF. Silver nanoparticles synthesized using trisodium citrate as reducing agent was used for incorporating into polyurethane foam. Polyurethane foam was found to be having saturation for supporting AgNPs. The pesticide concentration found to be directly proportional to mineralization time.