Polymeric nanofibers for the removal of Cr(III) from tannery waste water

We demonstrate the use of cysteine-modified polymer nanofibers for the rapid and efficient removal of Cr(III) from real tannery waste water samples. Various parameters such as pH, load of nanofibers and time of exposure were optimized to achieve maximum removal. The optimum parameters were found to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of environmental management 2013-11, Vol.129, p.410-413
Main Authors: El-Sherif, Iman Y., Tolani, Sagar, Ofosu, Kennedy, Mohamed, Ola A., Wanekaya, Adam K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adsorption
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Applied ecology
Applied sciences
Biological and medical sciences
Chromium
Chromium - chemistry
Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife
Environmental degradation: ecosystems survey and restoration
Environmental testing
Exact sciences and technology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Heavy metal content
Industrial Waste - analysis
Ions - chemistry
Nanofibers
Nanofibers - chemistry
Nanotechnology
Nutrient removal
Pollution
Polymers
Polymers - chemistry
Remediation
Removal
Spectrophotometry, Atomic
Tannery
Tanning
Waste Disposal, Fluid - methods
Waste water
Wastewaters
Water Pollutants, Chemical - chemistry
Water treatment
Water treatment and pollution
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Summary:We demonstrate the use of cysteine-modified polymer nanofibers for the rapid and efficient removal of Cr(III) from real tannery waste water samples. Various parameters such as pH, load of nanofibers and time of exposure were optimized to achieve maximum removal. The optimum parameters were found to be 0.1 mg of nanofibers per mL of tannery waste water with a pH of 5.5 and an exposure time of 45 min. Almost 99% Cr(III) was removed at these ideal conditions thus demonstrating the efficacy of our material. The maximum removal capacity at these ideal conditions was estimated to be approximately 1.75 g of chromium/gram of polymeric material. This is probably due to a variety of factors including the apparent high surface to volume ratio exhibited by these nanofibers and also due to the availability of numerous cysteine groups that are known to have high binding affinities with heavy metal ions. These nanoscale polymeric materials show great potential towards the removal of heavy metal cations from waste waters. •Cysteine-modified polymeric nanofibers were fabricated.•The modified nanofibers were used to remove Cr(III) from tannery waste water.•The optimized removal capacity was 1.75 g of Cr(III)/g of polymeric material.•The removal capacity is far greater than previously reported materials.
ISSN:0301-4797
1095-8630
DOI:10.1016/j.jenvman.2013.08.004