Ultra-long Magnetic Nanochains for Highly Efficient Arsenic Removal from Water

The contamination of drinking water with naturally occurring arsenic is a global health threat. Filters that are packed with adsorbent media with a high affinity for arsenic have been used to de-contaminate water - generally iron or aluminium oxides are favored materials. Recently, nanoparticles hav...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Materials for energy and sustainability, 2014-08, Vol.2 (32), p.12974-12981
Main Authors: Das, Gautom Kumar, Bonifacio, Cecile S, De Rojas, Julius, Liu, Kai, van Benthem, Klaus, Kennedy, Ian M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adsorbents
Arsenic
Drinking water
Media
Nanostructure
Self assembly
Surface area
Synthesis
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Summary:The contamination of drinking water with naturally occurring arsenic is a global health threat. Filters that are packed with adsorbent media with a high affinity for arsenic have been used to de-contaminate water - generally iron or aluminium oxides are favored materials. Recently, nanoparticles have been introduced as adsorbent media due to their superior efficiency compared to their bulk counter-parts. An efficient nanoadsorbent should ideally possess high surface area, be easy to synthesize, and most importantly offer a high arsenic removal capacity. Achieving all the key features in a single step synthesis is an engineering challenge. We have successfully engineered such a material in the form of nanochains synthesized via a one step flame synthesis. The ultra-long γ-Fe O nanochains possess high surface area (151.12 m g ), large saturation magnetization (77.1 emu g ) that aids in their gas phase self-assembly into long chains in an external magnetic field, along with an extraordinary arsenic removal capacity (162 mg.g ). A filter made with this material exhibited a relatively low-pressure drop and very little break-through of the iron oxide across the filter.
ISSN:2050-7488
2050-7496
DOI:10.1039/c4ta02614d