Biographical Info:

I graduated with First Class Honours in Industrial Chemistry from Adekunle Ajasin University, Nigeria, in 2009, emerging the overall best graduating student of the University for that year, having accumulated the highest CGPA. Between August 2009 and July 2010, I completed the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps program at the Chemistry Department, University of Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. I graduated with Distinction in Chemistry (MSc Chemistry) from the University of Lagos, Nigeria, and proceeded to Rhodes University, South Africa for my doctoral studies where I was supervised by Distinguished Prof. Tebello Nyokong. My doctoral-dissertation, which was funded by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Nigeria), and DST/MINTEK/NRF (South Africa), focused on the design and fabrication of optical limiting devices employing phthalocyanine-modified nanoparticles as protective shields for light-sensitive objects against laser radiations. I was the lead author in nine out of the ten manuscripts that were published during my doctoral studies. Upon completion of my PhD degree, I returned to Nigeria to join the Hydrochemistry Research Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Department, Adekunle Ajasin University, Nigeria to explore a variety of carbon-based visible-light-driven catalytic materials for targeted applications in pollutants degradation, environmental remediation, and other similar applications. Our ultimate goal at the Hydrochemistry Research Laboratory is to clean up wastewater contaminated with carcinogenic organic and inorganic pollutants occasioned by the activities of textile, dyes and other related industries, through the use of nanomaterials. I have been actively involved in the training of younger scientists since 2017 to date, both in Nigeria and South Africa. I have successfully supervised four Master's students and co-supervised one PhD student.
I have received a number of highly competitive research fellowships from organizations such as the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund, Nigeria); International Foundation for Science (IFS, Sweden); Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW, Netherlands); Claude Leon Foundation (Nelson Mandela University, South Africa); ALBORADA Cambridge-African fellowship (United Kingdom); and Vice Chancellor’s fellowship award (Nelson Mandela University, South Africa). The following are some of the notable sponsored projects that are either underway or completed in my research group: photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes in water (2017/2018); fabrication of solar-active polymeric/inorganic materials for removal of organic and inorganic pollutants in simulated wastewaters (2018-2020); photoreduction of CO2 to renewable organic compounds (2018-2020); electrochemical detection and oxidation of sulfur containing compounds (SCCs) in model fuels over silver/gold-polyaniline-modified electrodes (2019-2020); and fabrication of covalent organic polymers for simultaneous oxidation and removal of arsenic species in water (2021/2022).
I‘m a member Chemical Society of Nigeria (CSN), Nigeria Young Academy (NYA) and Society of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines (SPP).

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Website:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Owolabi-Bankole

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