Alex Gorzalski successfully defends his Masters Technical Report. Alex studied the fouling and optimum cleaning strategies of nanofiltration membranes used to treat groundwaters from North Carolina. We celebrated with a group dinner at Allen & Sons. Congratulations Alex!
Coronell Research Group
Water and Energy
Josh Powell receives the Bunker Award!
Josh Powell receives the George C. Bunker Award, which is given annually by the ESE Department to an MSEE candidate who shows the most outstanding scholarship and professional promise. Josh’s work focuses on characterizing the degradation of polyamide membranes by free chlorine. Congratulations Josh!
New member joins our group in Spring 2013
Our group welcomes Arianna Catenacci from Italy. Arianna is a visiting PhD student and will study the removal of contaminants from water using reductive media. Back row (left-to-right): Josh, Tony, Alex, Orlando (Group Director). Front row (left-to-right): Wan, Lin, Jingbo, Arianna.
Dr. Coronell is awarded the School’s Teaching Innovation Award for ESE
Dr. Coronell is awarded the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health Teaching Innovation Award for the ESE department. One faculty member from each of the school’s eight academic units is selected by students in their department as the faculty member “who improves the student learning environment and outcomes by integrating new technologies, engaging students in interactive activities, employing creative assessment methods, introducing progressive curriculum and/or incorporating creative ideas.” Congratulations Dr. Coronell!
Alex Gorzalski receives a GEAB Impact Award!
Alex Gorzalski receives a Graduate Education Advancement Board (GEAB) Impact Award, which recognizes outstanding graduate research of particular benefit to the citizens of North Carolina. His work focuses on fouling and cleaning of nanofiltration membranes used for drinking water treatment in coastal North Carolina. Alex will showcase his research to state legislators and the campus community at the UNC Graduate School’s Student Recognition Celebration in April 2013. Congratulations Alex!
(Paper) Modeling contaminant rejection by RO/NF membranes
A paper with Dr. Coronell as first author has been published in Environmental Science and Technology. The paper demonstrates that the change on the rejection of strong electrolytes and weak acids as a function of pH by RO/NF membranes can be predicted using the solution-diffusion model, Donnan potential theory and measurements of charge density in the membrane active layer. The paper can be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es302850p (Environmental Science and Technology, 2013, 47, 420-428).
(Paper) New bench-top method to study thin-film (nano)composite membranes
Lamar A. Perry’s paper entitled “Reliable, bench-top measurements of charge density in the active layers of thin-film composite and nanocomposite membranes using quartz crystal microbalance technology” has been published in the Journal of Membrane Science. A reliable, user-friendly, bench-top method was developed and evaluated for the measurement of negative charge density in the active layers of thin-film composite and thin-film nanocomposite membranes. The paper can be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2012.11.023 (Journal of Membrane Science, 2013, 429, 23-33).
Eliot S. Meyer successfully defends his Masters Technical Report!
Eliot S. Meyer successfully defends his Masters Technical Report. Eliot studied the degradation of the supports of thin-film composite and thin-film nanocomposite membranes during Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) analysis. Our group celebrated with dinner at Gourmet Kingdom. Congratulations Eliot!
New member joins our group in Fall 2012
Our group welcomes Jingbo Wang from China. Jingbo is a Master’s student and will study transport phenomena in RO/NF/FO membranes. Back row (left-to-right): Josh, Alex, Orlando (Group Director), Tony. Front row (left-to-right): Wan, Lin, Jingbo.
Brad N. Bennett successfully defends his Masters Technical Report!
Brad N. Bennett successfully defends his Masters Technical Report. Brad studied the removal of nitrate from aqueous solution using zero-valent metals. Our group celebrated with dinner at Allen & Sons – the first time some of us tried North Carolina BBQ. Congratulations Brad!
(Paper) A new target system for RBS analysis
A paper with Peter J. Attayek as first author has been published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A. The paper describes the design and operation of the hardware and software that comprise a new target system for Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) and elastic recoil detection (ERD) analyses. The new target system is housed at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) in Durham, NC. The target system was designed by our group, with Peter J. Attayek as the lead designer, in collaboration with Dr. Tom B. Clegg from the Physics and Astronomy Department. Special thanks also go to Dr. Hugon Karwowski and Dr. Nalin Parikh for their help and advice during design and testing. The paper can be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2012.02.005 (Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics A., 2012, 676, 21-25).
New members join our group in Fall 2011
Five new members have joined our group at the start of Fall 2011. Panitan (Wan) Jutaporn joins us as a doctoral student. Alex Gorzalski, Joshua Powell and Brad Bennett join us as Master’s students. David Holcomb joins us as an undergraduate researcher. The new members will work in various projects related to membrane technology and removal of contaminants from drinking water using redox processes.
(Paper) Depth heterogeneity in RO/NF membrane active layers
A paper with Dr. Coronell as first author has been published in Environmental Science and Technology. The paper studies the depth heterogeneity in the active layers of reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes by performing Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses on membrane samples whose carboxylate groups had been probed with silver (Ag+) and barium (Ba2+) ions. The paper can be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es200007h (Environmental Science and Technology, 2011, 45, 4513–4520).
New target system for ion scattering analysis of polymeric membranes
The new target system for high-energy ion scattering analysis of polymer membrane samples is now operational at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL)! The target system was designed by our group, with Peter Attayek as the lead designer, in collaboration with Dr. Tom Clegg from the Physics and Astronomy Department. Special thanks also go to Grayson Rich, Dr. Hugon Karwowski and Dr. Nalin Parikh for their help and advice during design and testing.
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