Desigining of new polymeric materials for chelation of arsenic from water

Sadiya Anjum, Deepti Gautam, Bhuvanesh Gupta and Saiqa Ikram

Department of Chemistry, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi -110025, India

Email: sikram@jmi.ac.in

Abstract:

Polymer based chelating materials for the removal of soluble arsenic has become an important option in the integrated approach to aqueous treatment. The separation is made easier because the addition of complexing agents with creates large entities that increase the size of the solute to be retained for the removal of metal ion from the aqueous medium. A wide range of chelating agents has been used for removing arsenic from water, as the current regulation of drinking water standard has become more stringent and requires arsenic content to be reduced to a few parts per billion. The high toxicity of this element made necessary the enforcement of stringent maximum allowable limits in drinking water.  In our work we try to provide the fascinating route for arsenic chelation from water with excellent ability of crosslinked thiolated derivative of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The thiolated PVA was derived by simple esterification with thioglycolic acid and subsequent crosslinking with sodium trimetaphosphate  in  order  to achieve maximum  thiol content.  The resulting  crosslinked material demonstrated the superior swelling ability and appropriate thiol content value which consequently shows consistent properties for required applications. In a preferred investigation, the crosslinked TPVA membranes chelates arsenic ion with thiol group from aqueous environment. The batch experiments were conducted with suitable condition i.e. short contact time, appropriate material and liquor ratio, various pH media and presence of interfering ions.

Keywords: polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), Chelation

References:

1.   Gupta B, Anjum S, Ikram S, J Appl Polym Sci, (In Press) 2012.

2.   Bernabé LR, Maríadel CA, Water Res, 2010, 5730.