Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) represent a stable and toxic class of environmental pollutants that has been persistently found in soil and groundwater. The presence of PCBs at many superfund sites across US has been related to adverse health effects among people living nearby these contaminated sites. In our group, we are developing a variety of magnetic polymeric nanocomposite systems based on iron oxide nanoparticles for binding and capture of PCBs. Here, a novel approach involving the direct coating of different functionalities onto iron oxide nanoparticles <i>in situ</i> in a single step reaction is presented, along with an atom transfer radical polymerization based method to design polymeric nanocomposites. Polyphenolic antioxidants such as curcumin and quercetin were incorporated onto the surface of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, and in addition, other functionalities, such as hydroxybenzoic acid and β-cyclodextrin, were also explored as the moieties on the nanoparticle surface. The functionalized polyphenolic coating interacts and binds PCBs in solution, whereas the magnetic iron oxide core enables magnetic decantation after PCB binding. The nanoparticles were primarily designed to capture and remove PCBs from Superfund sites, but the presence of polyphenols (curcumin and quercetin) may also provide protection against PCB toxicity in biological systems; hence giving them a dual role. Hence a nanoparticle system that has a dual approach in terms of PCB remediation in cleanup sites and simultaneously exerting biological protection against PCB-induced toxicity has been presented.

Functionalized magnetic nanoparticle systems for the environmental remediation

251st National Meeting (2016)

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