Eutrophication in lakes or rivers causes algal blooms and exhaustion of dissolved oxygen for living organism. Thus, many studies have been investigated to prevent eutrophication by lowering phosphorus which is the primary nutrient for aquatic ecosystem. However, current technologies for reducing phosphorus levels, such as biological treatment, chemical precipitation and mesoporous adsorbent, were not shown as feasible methods due to secondary environmental pollution and insufficient space to permeate giant phosphorus molecules in natural water. In order to solve the problems and to enhance the capacity, a new strategy of crystal-growth-technique was proposed. CeO2-covered nanofiber (PAN-CeO2) was manufactured for removing phosphorus species with growing crystallization, which adsorbates were combined to form CePO4 crystal on the surface. Our study introduced CeO2 on PAN nanofiber with the process of self-assembly method and offered superb PO43- adsorption capacity of ca. 17 mmol g-1 at low pH. Also, in neutral region, PAN-CeO2 showed 12mmol g-1 for PO43- removal in aqueous system. PAN-CeO2 was also carried out to adsorb various organic phosphorus molecules as formation of practical existence. In reusability experiment, while 10-times recycling tests were performed, it was continuously showed a higher capacity than conventional material. The result of adsorbed quantity was measured by ICP-OES and FT-IR was used to confirm the synthesis of adsorbent. XPS was proved that CeO2 is clearly covered on the PAN. Morphology and crystal structure of CePO4 were detected by FEG-SEM and TEM. XRD was performed to investigate the mechanism of PO43- adsorption. Our study demonstrated that formation of CeO2 nanoparticles on PAN surface and the CePO4 crystallization mechanism were detected by various analysis. CePO4 crystallization is regarded as a promising technology for improving efficiency of phosphorous removal. Also, the novel nanofiber technique can be a prospective material for various applications, such as catalysts, fuel cell and sensors.

Novel technique for enhancement of phosphorus removal in aqueous system using CeO2-covered PAN nanofiber

251st National Meeting (2016)

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