Arsenic, a toxic and carcinogenic inorganic aqueous contaminant, resulting from both natural geochemical processes and anthropogenic releases as a waste product of electronic and mining industrial practices. In order to mitigate releases of chemicals of concern such as arsenic, industrial wastewater effluents should be effectively and efficiently treated. Robust remediation of these effluents is made difficult due to differences in chemical behavior with changing system conditions that can affect oxidation states and pH, as well as competition with background oxyanions and other contaminants. The design and development of a selective, multifunctional, and regenerable adsorbent are demonstrated for the well-established and notoriously challenging contaminant combination of arsenic and phosphate by nano-enabling chitosan, an inexpensive natural biomaterial waste product. By including various nanocrystalline metal oxides, such as food grade titanium dioxide, and modifying the chitosan backbone multifunctionality can be realized, whereby the sorbent material acts as both a photoactive oxidizing agent that transforms arsenic +III into the more easily removed arsenic +V and as a selective adsorbent for the target arsenic over competing phosphate.

Towards multifunctionality in water treatment: Developing photoactive selective adsorbents for inorganic contaminants using nano-enabled biomaterials

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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