Chemistry and Sustainable Development
Chemistry and chemical research can be involved in achieving many sustainable development goals. Under the umbrella of the sustainable chemistry approach, the design and use of “kind” chemicals for the development and to provide alternative solutions for problematic applications can be achieved. Likewise, reducing side effects and conserving natural resources for value-added products are vital and well-match with sustainable goals.
The faculty (researchers) at the Department of Chemistry, Mirpur University of Science and Technology (MUST) is working in the various fields of materials Chemistry, Synthetic Chemistry, and natural product chemistry. Research in these fields was designed based on SGDs Goal.
Department of Chemistry Participation in SGDs
Research participated in achieving SGDs are as follows
SGD 6 Clean water and Sanitation: Improving water quality is an area of interest to many of our researchers. Researchers from the Department of Chemistry are working to remove water contaminations by designing materials for pollutant adsorption and degradation. Moreover, the researchers are also working on converting toxic industrial wastes to value-added products.
Example of relevant work: Naseer, S., Aamir, M., Mirza, M. A., Jabeen, U., Tahir, R., Malghani, M. N. K., & Wali, Q. (2022). Synthesis of Ni–Ag–ZnO solid solution nanoparticles for photoreduction and antimicrobial applications. Rsc Advances, 12(13), 7661-7670. doi: 10.1039/D2RA00717G
SGD 7 Affordable and Clean Energy: The research on designing and developing energy conversion materials is also being focused on by the researchers at the Department of Chemistry. The synthesized materials were explored for the fabrication of solar cells and hydrogen production by water splitting.
Example of relevant work:
- Jabeen, U., Shah, S. M., Aamir, M., & Ahmad, I. (2021). Grafting and co-grafting of dyes on Cd-doped ZnS nanocrystals and their application on dye-sensitized solar cells. Bulletin of Materials Science, 44(4), 291. doi: 10.1007/s12034-021-02575-3
- Khan, H. R., Aamir, M., Akram, B., Malik, M. A., Tahir, A. A., Choudry, M. A., & Akhtar, J. (2022). Superior photoelectrochemical performance by antimony-doped ZnO thin films by AACVD approach. Bulletin of Materials Science, 45(2), 55. doi: 10.1007/s12034-021-02624-x
- Razzaque, S., Khan, M. D., Aamir, M., Sohail, M., Bhoyate, S., Gupta, R. K., . . . Revaprasadu, N. (2021). Selective Synthesis of Bismuth or Bismuth Selenide Nanosheets from a Metal Organic Precursor: Investigation of their Catalytic Performance for Water Splitting. Inorganic chemistry, 60(3), 1449-1461. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c02668
SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production: Researchers at the department of Chemistry are also converting industrial and agricultural waste to value-added chemicals, which help manage chemical and agricultural (food waste). Industrial waste contains metals, whereas agricultural waste contains food that can be used to produce other industry-based materials for making various raw materials or chemicals.
Example of relevant work:
Wali, Qamar and Butt, Zakia and Qureshi, Adil Afaq and Naseer, Sania and Aamir, Muhammad and Aziz, Shahid and Nadeem, Muhammad and Jabeen, Uzma and akhtar, Javeed and Fan, Wei and Yang, Shengyuan, Green Synthesis of Cu-Mn Co-Doped Zno Nanoparticles for Antimicrobial and Photocatalytic Applications. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4198965 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4198965