Arsenic(III) and Arsenic(V) Removal from Water Sources by Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs): A Mini Review of Recent Developments

Abstract

The present review article summarizes the recent findings reported in the literature with regard to the use of molecularly imprinted polymers for the removal of arsenic from water and wastewater. MIPs are polymers in which a template is employed in order to enable the formation of recognition sites during the covalent assembly of the bulk phase, via a polymerization or polycondensation process. The efficiency of both arsenic species and the mechanism of removal are highlighted. The results have shown that under certain conditions, MIPs demonstrated arsenic sorption capacities of up to 130 mg/g for As(V) and 151 mg/g for As(III), while the regeneration ability was found to reach up to more than 20 cycles. The overall results showed that further development of MIPs could result in the formation of promising adsorbents for arsenic removal from waters. The use of MIPs for the removal not only of arsenic but also other inorganic contaminants is considered a very important topic, with great potential in terms of future applications in water treatment. The main advantage of these materials is that they are very selective toward the contaminant of interest. This enhanced selectivity is attributed to the incorporation of specific templates, which can then adsorb the contaminant of interest almost exclusively. Therefore, the main problem in adsorption processes is the competition for adsorption sites by other water components, for example, phosphates, nitrates, carbonates, and sulfates, which can be circumvented by the use of MI-type adsorbents.

Hybridized sulfated-carboxymethyl cellulose/MWNT nanocomposite as highly selective electrochemical probe for trace detection of arsenic in real environmental samples

“…1,2 The inorganic forms of arsenite (As(III)) and arsenate (As(V)) are the most common species in surface water, drinking water, and groundwater, with As(III) typically being regarded as more harmful than As(V). 3 The high concentration of As(III) in drinking water seriously harms human health by causing keratosis, skin damage, lung and bladder cancer, etc. Additionally, it impairs immune function in pregnant women, increasing the chance of newborn mortality.…”

Metal-Impregnated Petroleum Coke-Derived Activated Carbon for the Adsorption of Arsenic in Acidic Waters

“…This is consistent with previous research in the literature stating arsenic(III) must generally be oxidized to arsenic(V) before removal, as adsorption is very efficient for the pentavalent arsenic species but not the trivalent arsenic species. 40 Once again, the metal-loaded activated carbon presented in this work outperforms the adsorption capacity of the standard activated carbon and the commercial benchmark, reaching 37.15 ± 2.04% total arsenic(III) adsorption (9.28 ± 0.61 mg/g) compared to the 15.09 ± 0.13% (3.59 ± 0.07 mg/g) and 12.81 ± 0.79% (2.92 ± 0.12 mg/g) observed in the standard and commercial activated carbons, respectively. Kinetics curves for arsenic(III) adsorption are given in Figure 12 .…”

Silver-graphene oxide nanocomposite doping chitosan/PVA membrane for arsenic (III) elimination from aqueous solution

“…Activated carbon, the most often used adsorbent [14], as well as various inorganic particles such as metal oxides [15], clay-based adsorbents [16], charcoal [17] and various polymers [18] have all been used for arsenic ions adsorption.…”