Research

Designing and employing organic-inorganic sorbents

My scientific interests within the fields of soil chemistry and mineralogy center on colloid and interface phenomena. My approach has been to conduct basic science studies which serve as a basis for environmental application-oriented research.

My expertise is modifying clay surfaces to design optimized sorbents which in turn efficiently bind pollutants. The modification is achieved by adsorbing organic molecules as monomers, micelles or polymers on the clay surface. I focus on characterizing these clay composites and studying the interactions within the composite (clay surface and modifiers) and the interactions of pollutants with these composites.

Pollutant uptake by polycation-clay composite sorbents for water treatment

We develop novel polymer-clay composite sorbents for the removal of pollutants from water. The guiding hypothesis is that pollutants will bind with high affinity to polymer-clay composite sorbents based pollutant-polymer molecular compatibility. Due to pollutant-sorbent compatibility the filtration by such sorbent columns is more efficient than the filtration by common granulated activated carbon (GAC) columns.

Catalytic polymer-clay composite for enhanced removal and degradation of diazinon (Shabtai and Mishael, Journal of Hazardous Materials. 2017)

 

Efficient Filtration of Effluent Organic Matter by Polycation-Clay Composite Sorbents: Effect of Polycation Configuration on Pharmaceutical Removal (Shabtai and Mishael ES&T, 2016)

 

Environmentally friendly Pesticide formulations based on micelle-clay composites

We have been developing for several years slow release formulation for herbicides based on micelle-clay composites. Bioassays show that these formulations not only significantly reduced herbicide leaching but also enhanced weed control in comparison to commercial formulations, indicating that these innovative formulations are environmentally promising. Furthermore we have demonstrated the efficiency of such formulation to reduce root penetration in drip irrigation systems.

Reduced Herbicide Leaching by in Situ Adsorption of Herbicide−Micelle Formulations to Soils (Katz and Mishael. JAFC, 2015)

Development and Employment of Slow-Release Pendimethalin Formulations for the Reduction of Root Penetration into Subsurface Drippers (Zait et al., 2015)

 

Bio-clays: interactions and activity

PEG-PE/clay composite carriers for doxorubicin: Effect of composite structure on release, cell interaction and cytotoxicity (Kohay et al. Acta Biomaterialia, 2017)

Pollutant fate in the environment – soil wetting and drying

We (collaboration with Dr. Emanuel HUJI) aim to quantify the effect of wetting and drying cycles on soil structure and consequently on pollutant fate in the soil by employing advanced laser granulometry and X-ray micro-tomographic imaging (micro-CT) measurements