Arsenic Removal from Contaminated Water Using Non-Imprinted Polymers
Annual Conference
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Arsenic contamination presents serious health concerns for the public. Elevated arsenic concentrations are a worldwide issue, effecting millions of people through contamination of drinking water, irrigation water and food crops. Exposure to arsenic can result in skin lesions, developmental problems and cancer. Previous technologies for the removal of arsenic in most cases require either several pre-treatment steps or have long turn over times between treatments. Production of arsenic contaminated waste is also an issue.
This study has investigated the possibility of using non-imprinted polymers (NIP) for the treatment of arsenic contaminated water, that can provide both sufficient and efficient removal of contaminants.
NIP showed an adsorption capacity of 27 mg arsenic per g of media at pH 5. Adsorption capacity decreased with increasing pH. Rate of adsorption was rapid due to the small particle size of the media and high surface area. Adsorption was best modelled by the Dubinin – Radushkevic isotherm and the pseudo-second order model which gave average R2 of 0.93 and 0.99 respectively. NIP would be better suited for acidic solutions containing high arsenic concentrations, such as mining waste water, but would not be suitable for river water where arsenic concentrations are 0.02 mg/L and neutral pH.