• Title/Summary/Keyword: Multi-granule nanoclusters

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Efficient Removal of Arsenic Using Magnetic Multi-Granule Nanoclusters

  • Lee, Seung-Ho;Cha, Jinmyung;Sim, Kyunjong;Lee, Jin-Kyu
    • Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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    • v.35 no.2
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    • pp.605-609
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    • 2014
  • Magnetic multi-granule nanoclusters (MGNCs) were investigated as an inexpensive means to effectively remove arsenic from aqueous environment, particularly groundwater sources consumed by humans. Various size MGNCs were examined to determine both their capacity and efficiency for arsenic adsorption for different initial arsenic concentrations. The MGNCs showed highly efficient arsenic adsorption characteristics, thereby meeting the allowable safety limit of $10{\mu}g/L$ (ppb), prescribed by the World Health Organization (WHO), and confirming that 0.4 g and 0.6 g of MGNCs were sufficient to remove 0.5 mg/L and 1.0 mg/L of arsenate ($AsO_4{^{3-}}$) from water, respectively. Adsorption isotherm models for the MGNCs were used to estimate the adsorption parameters. They showed similar parameters for both the Langmuir and Sips models, confirming that the adsorption process in this work was active at a region of low arsenic concentration. The actual efficiency of arsenate removal was then tested against 1 L of artificial arsenic-contaminated groundwater with an arsenic concentration of 0.6 mg/L in the presence of competing ions. In this case, only 1.0 g of 100 nm MGNCs was sufficient to reduce the arsenic concentrations to below the WHO permissible safety limit for drinking water, without adjusting the pH or temperature, which is highly advantageous for practical field applications.