Das Gautom Kumar, Bonifacio Cecile S, De Rojas Julius, Liu Kai, van Benthem Klaus, Kennedy Ian M
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science.
J Mater Chem A Mater. 2014 Aug 28;2(32):12974-12981. doi: 10.1039/C4TA02614D.
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-FeO 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.
饮用水受天然存在的砷污染是一项全球性的健康威胁。装有对砷具有高亲和力的吸附介质的过滤器已被用于水的净化——通常，氧化铁或氧化铝是首选材料。近来，纳米颗粒因其相较于其块状对应物具有更高的效率而被用作吸附介质。理想情况下，一种高效的纳米吸附剂应具有高表面积、易于合成，并且最重要的是具备高砷去除能力。在一步合成中实现所有这些关键特性是一项工程挑战。我们已成功通过一步火焰合成法制备出纳米链形式的此类材料。超长的γ-FeO纳米链具有高表面积（151.12 m²/g）、大饱和磁化强度（77.1 emu/g），这有助于它们在外部磁场中气相自组装成长链，同时还具有非凡的砷去除能力（162 mg/g）。用这种材料制成的过滤器表现出相对较低的压降，并且氧化铁透过过滤器的穿透量极少。
