Nanotechnology for Water Treatment and Purification

385 Pages·2014·9.42 MB·English

by  Anming Hu

Lecture Notes in Nanoscale Science and Technology 22
Anming Hu
Allen Apblett Editors
Nanotechnology
for Water
Treatment and
Purifi cation
Foreword by
Mark R. Servos
Lecture Notes in Nanoscale Science
and Technology
Volume 22
Series editors
Zhiming M. Wang, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China
Andreas Waag, Braunschweig, Germany
Greg Salamo, Fayetteville, USA
Naoki Kishimoto, Tsukuba Ibaraki, Japan
Stefano Bellucci, Frascati, Italy
Young June Park, Seoul, Republic of Korea
For furthervolumes:
http://www.springer.com/series/7544

Anming Hu (cid:129) Allen Apblett
Editors
Nanotechnology for Water
Treatment and Purification
Foreword by Mark R. Servos
Editors
AnmingHu AllenApblett
DepartmentofMechanical DepartmentofChemistry
AerospaceandBiomedical OklahomaStateUniversity
Engineering Stillwater,OK,USA
UniversityofTennessee
Knoxville,TN,USA
ISSN2195-2159 ISSN2195-2167(electronic)
ISBN978-3-319-06577-9 ISBN978-3-319-06578-6(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-06578-6
SpringerChamHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014941693
©SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2014
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About the Editors
AllenApblettisanOklahomaStateUniversityprofessorofchemistry,Councilor
of the Oklahoma Section of the American Chemical Society, and President of
XploSafe, LLC. His interests include industrial, materials, and environmental
chemistry, catalysis, and metallo-organic chemistry applied to development of
new chemical processes. Recently he is focused on explosive detection and neu-
tralization,nanotechnologyforwaterpurification,sensors,andarsenicremediation.
AnmingHuisanassistantprofessorintheDepartmentofMechanical,Aerospace
and Biomedical Engineering, University of Tennessee, USA, and former research
assistantprofessorintheDepartmentofMechanicalandMechatronicsEngineering
at the University of Waterloo, Canada. He and his colleagues began studying the
application of nanotechnology for water treatment and purification in 2009.
The research is funded by the Canadian Water Network, the Natural Science and
EngineeringResearch Council(NSERC),Canada. AnmingHuis alsoworkingon
laser-based advanced manufacturing, nanophotonics, and ultrafast laser-materials
interaction.
v

Preface
Waterisessentialforlife,butformanyyearsitwasgenerallytakenforgranteduntil
increasingpollutionanddiminishmentofpotablewatersuppliesdelineatedaneed
to protect our water supplies and develop new technologies to purify water for
consumption. For example, it is imperative that pollutants in wastewater effluents
from both industrial and domestic sources be removed or destroyed before dis-
charge to the environment. These pollutants, produced as the by-products of
industrializationandsocialdevelopment,areposingseriouschallengestoexisting
municipalwatertreatmenttechnologies.Thisincludesconventionalandemergent
contaminantssuchasharmfulheavymetalions,toxicdyemolecules,radionuclides,
pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and endocrine disruptor compounds.
The public concern about the effectiveness of conventional water treatment pro-
cessesfortheremovalofemergentenvironmentalpollutantshasgeneratedaneed
forthedevelopmentofnovelwatertreatmentmethods.Atthesametime,asnatural
water resources continue to diminish due to overuse, waste, and pollution, the
current watertreatmentcapacitiesforsecuringclean water willbeunabletomeet
the needs of our growing population. New treatment plants and facilities should
be built to have high-energy efficiency, improved water treatment abilities, and a
long service life. Conventional water treatment technologies fail to satisfy these
requirements, prompting the need for new technologies. Furthermore, access to
clean drinking water is a development issue faced by billions of people in devel-
oping and near-developed countries. Sustainable development in these regions
requiresinnovativetechnologiestoprovidesafedrinkingwaterinacostandenergy
efficientmanner.
Nanotechnology offers practical solutions tothe problemsassociated with pro-
curingcleandrinkingwaterandprotectingnaturalwatersfrombeingcontaminated.
Nanotechnology is one of the most significant technological achievements of
the twentieth century. This importance results from the fact that at the nanoscale
(1–100 nm) materials can display dramatically different physical and chemical
properties from their bulk counterparts. Radically improved specific surface
areas, significant increases in surface reactivity, and tunable energy gaps and
electronic structures provide the means to achieve useful water treatment
vii
viii Preface
capabilitiessuchashighlyefficientsurfaceadsorption,nanofitration,photocatalytic
degradation, and solar disinfection. Nanotechnology can be utilized to safeguard
our critically important water resources by providing a diverse range of tools and
technologies for water treatment and purification. This involves harnessing the
unique physicochemical, electronic, magnetic, and surface properties of
nanoparticlesalongwiththeengineeringapplicationsofnanotechnologiestoensure
asupplyofsafedrinkingwaterforagrowingpopulation,generatingfreshwaterfrom
seawater, preventing contamination of the environment, and creating effective
efficientmethodsforremediationofpollutedwaters.
NanotechnologyforWaterTreatmentandPurificationisdesignedtoserveasa
desktop reference for the field at the boundary between nanotechnology, water
science,analyticalchemistry,andenvironmentalengineering.Althoughthisinter-
disciplinary topic is of current specialized research interest, the authors have also
provided introductory materials and have utilized presentation styles and organi-
zationstructuresthatmakethebookaccessibletobothstudentsandscholarsoutside
the field. To this end, the book consists of 11 chapters that reflect the progression
fromintroductorytospecializedtopics.
Chapter 1 introduces the fundamentals of nanotechnology for water treatment.
Startingfrombasicwatertreatmentmethods,theprinciplesofmembranefiltration,
reverse osmosis, advanced oxidization, and photocatalytic degradation are
reviewed. Chapter 2 presents the synthesis of TiO nanowires, the fabrication
2
methods for nanowire membranes, characterization of nanowire membranes, and
thentheirapplicationforwatertreatmentthroughsurfaceadsorption,photocatalytic
degradation, disinfection of by-products and bio-pollutants, and nanofiltration.
InChap.3,ZhangandLishowtheapplicationofothermetaloxidesemiconductor
nanomaterialstodecomposethepersistentorganicenvironmentpollutantperfluor-
ooctanoicacid(PFOA).Theauthorsprovideanoverviewofrecentadvancesinthe
photocatalytic decomposition mechanism of PFOA by In O and Ga O ,
2 3 2 3
nanostructuresthataremoreeffectivethanTiO fortheremovalofPFOA.Potential
2
applicationsinwastewatertreatmentarealsodiscussed.
InChap.4,S.Tabedemonstratesthatelectrospunnanofibermembranes(ENMs)
areacutting-edgenewgenerationofmembranesthatoffersignificantlyhigherflux
at similar rejection rates in comparison to conventional membranes.
Electrospinning has allowed for fabrication of highly porous ENMs with control-
lable pore size in the range required for microfiltration and ultrafiltration. These
ENMs could replace conventional water treatment membranes with smaller sys-
temsthatoperateatlowerpressures.Inthenextchapter(Chap.5),LiandSeymour
introducefullerenesandcarbonnano-onionsassorbents,photocatalysts,andmem-
branes for wastewater treatment. These materials have emerged as promising
candidatesforenvironmentalapplicationsduetotheiruniqueproperties.
InChap.6,S.MuleyandN.Ravindrapresentgraphene-basednanomaterialsfor
waterandairremediationviaavarietyofmechanisms.Theyextensivelydiscussthe
effects ofadsorbentsontheelectronicproperties, magneticproperties,and photo-
conductivity, along with the relevant mechanisms. They show that graphene
nanosheets and graphene oxides, due to their ease of chemical modification, have
Preface ix
emergedasidealmaterialsforadsorbentstoeliminateheavymetalions,inorganic
ions, and organic dyes from water. Use of graphene as a photocatalyst in water
remediation is also discussed. A brief overview of the latest scientific advances
in the development of graphene-based devices to overcome the present short-
comingsforfabricatingsensorsinthefieldofgassensing,biosensing,andphoton-
ics for image sensing applications, along with their operating principles, is also
presented.
LeshukandGushowthepotentialofmagneticseparationofsuperparamagnetic
nanoparticles from water for recycling and reuse as an efficient, practical, and
low-cost slurry-type water treatment method. In this chapter they review the
fundamentaltheoryandconceptsofmagneticnanoparticleseparationsandpresent
bothasynthesisprocessforsize-tunablesuperparamagneticironoxidenanospheres
andtheapplicationofthesenanospheresasacorematerialfortheimmobilization
of TiO , to be used in photocatalytic water treatment as magnetically recyclable
2
compositeparticles.
Inthefollowingchapter,TradandApblettfocusontheproductionofmagnetic
activated carbon materials that, when combined with magnetic filtration, provide
efficient technology for removing arsenic anddyes fromwater.In Chap.9, Susan
Andrew’s group reviews the progress of nanotechnologies for drinking water
treatment. They demonstrate that various nanomaterials can provide concurrent
disinfection, disinfection by-product (DBP) precursor reduction, and degradation
of recalcitrant compounds. Research into DBP formation in water treatment pro-
cesses employing TiO photocatalysis is limited, but the studies that have
2
been conducted to date suggest that these technologies create few DBPs directly
and have site-specific effects on DBP precursor formation. UV/TiO compares
2
favorably to existing disinfection and DBP precursor removal technologies in
terms of both DBP formation and DBP precursor removal. Hybrid systems incor-
porating UV/TiO along withanother DBP precursor removal technology such as
2
coagulation, adsorption, or membrane filtration are also promising for both
applications.
Lastbutnotleast,inChap.10,Oakesetal.describehownanotechnologiescould
furtheralloweconomicutilizationofminewaterasasourceofcommercialviable
products. They provide an overview of recent and future developments in nano-
technology that would benefit contemporary mine water treatment regimes, while
investigating novel abate approaches possible through the use of nanotechnology.
The chapter discusses candidate nanomaterials, their advantages and limitations
relative to existing processes, and the unique properties and surface-active mech-
anismsthatenabletheiradoptioninminewatertreatmentapplications.
The application of nanotechnology to drinking water purification is a rapidly
expandingfieldwitheveracceleratingtechnicalachievementsanddramaticexpan-
sion of knowledge in this field. This book provides a snapshot of present-day
technologiesandprovidesastrongfoundationfor futuredevelopments.Therapid
growth of the field means that the book cannot be all encompassing, but it does
represent all of the important areas where nanotechnology is favorably impacting
drinkingwatersupplies.Weowespecialthankstoindividualauthorsineachchapter.