Departmental News

Posted:  May 26, 2026 - 08:00am

 Salika Dulanjali, Sooriyage was awarded the CRS Graduate Student Fellowship for her research project titled “Peptide-incorporated hydrogels for selective sequestration of radionuclides and heavy metals in aqueous environments to address water quality changes in New Mexico”. CRS Graduate Student Fellowships are awarded for project-based research that is conducted under the mentorship of a UNM faculty member who holds a tenured or tenure-stream appointment in the department that pertains to the student’s degree program.

Congrats Salika, we are so proud of you!

"Peptide-incorporated hydrogels for selective sequestration of radionuclides and heavy metals in aqueous environments to address water quality changes in New Mexico”

Abstract:
In New Mexico, Heavy metal and radioactive metal contamination of groundwater from nuclear research, industrial processes, historic mining, and DOE waste streams continues to pose a problem for the environment and public health. Hazardous heavy metals like uranium, lead, arsenic, chromium, and Pertechnetate (TcO4-) are the most dangerous contaminants. Because of their high solubility, limited interactions with traditional sorbents, and chemical stability under environmental circumstances, these pollutants are challenging to remove from aquatic ecosystems. Their persistent presence in groundwater endangers communities and ecosystems throughout the state, highlighting the critical need for improved cleanup techniques.

Ion exchange resins, organic cages, and porous materials are a few examples of modern treatment methods that frequently face challenges with instability, limited solubility, poor scalability in complex environments, inadequate selectivity in the presence of competing ions, and the need for generation or removal processes that result in sizable secondary waste streams. Biomolecular recognition offers a promising alternative for selective pollutant capture. Hydrogels provide a water-compatible, structurally tunable matrix by incorporating functional biomolecules like peptides while maintaining accessibility for dissolved pollutants. This tunable peptide-based hydrogel approach aims to enhance material stability, reduce functional loss, and enable interactions that enhance binding efficiency and selectivity compared to free peptides or traditional sorbent systems.

While traditional resin-based systems that rely on solvents for contaminant recovery, hydrogel- based materials can act as absorbent matrices that capture and retain target ions in a solid-like phase. This system facilitates handling and eliminates the need for additional liquid-phase processing steps that generate secondary waste, thereby enabling contaminant preconcentration and immobilization directly within the material. These systems provide a useful scale for environmental cleanup and can be manufactured as membranes, blocks, or bulk materials suitable for both flow-through and batch applications. By carefully removing contaminants from dilute aqueous systems prior to final disposal, this approach enhances downstream immobilization techniques such as vitrification rather than replacing current technologies.