Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography
Open Access

Abstract

Nano-materials had gained special attention since last decade in water pollutant treatment. Two vital properties make nanoparticles highly lucrative as sorbents. On a mass basis, they have much larger surface areas compared to macro particles. They can also be enhanced with various reactor groups to increase their chemical affinity towards target compounds. These properties are increasingly being exploited by workers to develop highly selective and efficient sorbents for removal of organic and inorganic pollutants from contaminated water. In the present study, nanoparticle (70-90 nm.) agglomerates of synthetic hydrous Cerium Aluminium mixed oxide (NHCAO) were used for trivalent arsenic adsorption from the contaminated water samples. NHCAO was synthesized by chemical precipitation method and the dry oxide thus obtained was then meshed and used for arsenic sorption study. The oxide was characterized in scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The SEM images showed that the oxide surface is rough in nature, no definite surface morphology and have poor crystalline nature. From the TEM analysis, it was found that the NHCAO was agglomeration of spherical particles of size ranged in 70?90 nm, which appeared as the garland like chain showing the presence of void space. The presence of nanoparticles revealed in the TEM images indicated high surface to volume ratio of the material, which can be useful for adsorption purpose. The oxide was found to be very much effective in removing As(III) from water within wide range of pH. Kinetic study showed that maximum adsorption took place within the first 50 minutes of contact time, which is very much required for practical utility. The monolayer sorption capacity of the binary oxide is quite comparable to the other As(III) adsorbents reported previously. Nano-agglomerates of mixed oxides such as iron?cerium, iron?manganese, iron?zirconium, iron?titanium, iron?chromium, cerium-manganese etc. have been synthesized and successfully employed for pollutant removal (i.e. arsenic, fluoride etc.) from aqueous solutions in previous research works. Cerium Aluminium mixed oxide particle synthesized in the present study can be considered as another potent adsorbent of arsenic

Biography

Sayan Bhattacharya is a faculty in the Department of Environmental Science, Asutosh College, Calcutta. For the last five years he has been engaged in his doctoral research in Department of Environmental Science in University of Calcutta. He has published 20 International Conferences proceedings and several National Conference proceedings, 6 book chapters and 8 international peer reviewed journal papers. He has received young researcher award from Govt. of India. He has more than 3 years of teaching experiences in 4 colleges and universities in West Bengal, India and performed as reviewer and editor in international peer reviewed journals.