Arsenic Removal from Water by Porous Polymers

Published Date:

October 2016

Authors:

R Foudazi, R Zowada, A Malakian

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to design a polyHIPE polymer that is super sorbent with the capability of becoming functionalized for heavy metal removal from water. PolyHIPE polymers are interconnected porous polymer structures (up to 99% porosity). The monomer used in this work is acrylamide-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (AMPS), which is cross-linked with N,N’methylene(bis)acrylamide (MBA) to produce cation exchange monoliths which can be functionalized in-situ with iron(III) oxide nanoparticles. When monoliths are functionalized with these nanoparticles, they have the capacity to filter out heavy metal cations in water. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) are used to characterize the polymer and nanoparticle morphology. Immersing samples in excess water show high water capacity of such porous polymers (more than 2000 wt.%) for the first time. An induced coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-OES) was used to measure the arsenic removal capability of functionalized polymers from water. The results show that a super sorbent polymer monolith can be synthesized through the HIPE polymerization technique and can be functionalized for removing heavy metals such as arsenic in water.

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Keywords:

high internal phase emulsion; polymerization;arsenic removal; heavy metal; water contamination; porous polymer; filtration; nanoparticle;