Protein - Inorganic Sustainable Hybrid Nano-Materials in Water Purification

Proteins belong to an important and abundant class of natural biomolecules.  Use of such systems for the development of nano-materials for different applications would automatically endow its inherent property of immunogenicity, low-toxicity, biocompatibility, easy degradability and resource availability.  Their nano-structures and thereby the utility can be modified by using biologically relevant metal ions.  Therefore, various protein – inorganic based nano materials have been explored in our group for water purification. Some of those which will be covered in this lecture include, (a) Role of Moringa Oleifera coagulant protein coated copper phosphate nanoflowers for the removal of heavy toxic metal ions and in oxidative degradation of dyes from water.¹  (b) BSA-copper hydrogel in the absorption and degradation organic dyes from water.^2-3  (c) pH responsive BSA-Au hydrogel beads for the removal of organic dyes and heavy toxic metal ions from contaminated water.⁴  Our group also developed some macrocyclic based organic – inorganic hybrid nano materials for the removal of dye contaminations from water.⁵