As demand for clean drinking water increases, the need to utilize less ideal water sources also increases. To compensate, new and more efficient purification methods must be developed. Natural organic matter (NOM) contamination is an emerging human health issue, as NOM can be converted to harmful disinfection byproducts during the disinfection process of water purification. Anion-exchange resins have been demonstrated as an emerging method for removal of NOM from water. Our NanoResin is a novel nanoparticle utilizing short chain (8-30 unit), quaternary-ammonium based anion-exchange polymers covalently attached to carbon nanotubes. This allows us to couple the high specific surface area of the carbon nanotube to the binding efficiency of the polymer. The narrow diameter of the resin allows the binding sites to be easily accessible to the targeted contaminants, resulting in a fast equilibrium time. This allows the NanoResin to function as a contact resin, with a 10 s equilibrium time compared to 30 min for commercial AER.<br/><br/>We have explored alternative substrates including multi-walled nanotubes and nanofibers, and compared performance based off mass efficiency and equilibrium time. We have also explored the kinetics of the aqueous polymerization reaction in order to optimize polymer growth and minimize poly-dispersity in a greener synthetic pathway. Characterization of the NanoResin and polymer growth will be presented through Raman spectroscopy, surrogate molecule and real water testing, and H-NMR spectroscopy. These characterization methods show the NanoResin to be a mass efficient fast filtration method. The conformation of the resin has been characterized using SEM and TEM.

Aqueous synthesis, characterization and optimization of novel nanostructures for water purification

253rd National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.