Jehil Mehta
I am a high school 11th grader at the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science in Denton, Texas which is located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. I work in a chemistry laboratory at the University of North Texas under the guidance of my professor, Dr. Mohammad Omary. My research involves using organic, inorganic, and analytical chemistry to develop materials that have the potential to have various environmental applications. You can find my abstract below and all other presentation elements can be found by clicking on them in the menu above. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please leave them in the Discussion section. If you would like to further discuss my research please feel free to email me at jehilmehta@my.unt.edu. Thank you for your time in looking at my project.
Abstract
Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) are harmful chemicals that are found in post-fracturing water which could eventually contaminate ground and surface water. Hydraulic fracturing is a process that is necessary to extract natural gas and oil for industrial purposes as they account for about 80% of energy consumption in the United States. A fluorous metal-inorganic framework (FMIF-1), Ag2(Ag4Tz6), has shown to be effective in displaying hydrophobic properties and adsorbing BTEX from water due to its pore size and fluorinated and hydrogen-free pore surfaces. Nitrogen isotherms revealed that it may need to be activated using a microwave, but that it is also quite porous. It outperforms activated carbon and zeolite, other commonly used porous materials, since it does adsorb water at even 100% relative humidity. FMIF-1 has also shown to retain its crystal structure when upscaled and has two pore sizes of 7 Aoand 12 Ao. When free-floating FMIF-1 was placed into a BTEX solution, there was a significant decrease in the concentration of BTEX as evidenced by the GC-FID. These results suggest great promise in producing large amounts of FMIF-1 to remove organic pollutants from oil spills and purify fracking water. Unique delivery systems could be developed in order to reuse this material and make it a seamless process such as potentially using floating bags of FMIF to purify water.