Nitrosamines, as a class of compounds, have been reported to be mutagenic, cytotoxic, genotoxic and carcinogenic. Nitrosamines are formed during the chloramine wastewater treatment process and are a major concern in water recovery systems. A process using stationary carbon electrodes inside an electrochemical cell was developed and tested in this study to adsorb and decompose nitrosamines from an aqueous solution. The carbon xerogel electrode material has a high nitrosamine adsorption capacity and can initiate an electrochemically-mediated reduction of nitrosamines to a secondary amine. A greater than 80% reduction of two different nitrosamines was observed from a high pH solution. Nitrosamine decomposition was effective in a variety of solutions with high pH or salt concentrations.

Decomposition of nitrosamines through electrochemically-mediated reduction on carbon xerogel electrodes

2019 Spring National Meeting

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