Activated carbon is a well established adsorbent for removing organic pollutants from water, however, inorganic pollutants, are not removed efficiently by activated carbon. Toxsorb's technology of chemically modifying activated carbon, enables functionalizing the activated carbon to treat a variety of inorganic pollutants. The modification process is done by the irreversible pre-adsorption of a modifier molecule (in most cases � organocation) to the activated carbon surface. The modifier molecule must include a hydrophobic part that anchors to the activated carbon surface and a functional group that has high affinity to the target pollutant, thus creating a highly selective adsorbent. For example, selectivity coefficients for chromate and perchlorate over chloride are 105 and 106 respectively. The adsorption mechanism is ion exchange or chelation (depending on the modifier). Toxsorb's modified activated carbon (MAC) adsorbents are successfully used in the industry for 3 years and drinking water applications are at advanced stages of development.

Modified activated carbon (MAC) technology for removing heavy metals and oxyanions from water

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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