Arsenic Removal from Natural Groundwater Using Cupric Oxide

Abstract

Groundwater is a main source of drinking water for some rural areas. People in these rural areas are potentially at risk from elevated levels of arsenic (As) due to a lack of water treatment facilities. The objectives of this study were to (1) measure As concentrations in approximately 50 groundwater samples from rural domestic wells in the western United States, (2) explore the potential of cupric oxide (CuO) particles in removal of As from groundwater samples under natural conditions (i.e., without adding competing anions and adjusting the pH or oxidation state), and (3) determine the effects of As removal on the chemistry of groundwater samples. Forty-six groundwater well samples from rural domestic areas were tested in this study. More than 50% of these samples exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Maximum Contaminant Limit (US EPA MCL) of 10 µg/L for As. CuO particles effectively removed As from groundwater samples across a wide range of pH (7.11 and 8.95) and concentrations of competing anions including phosphate (<0.05 to 3.06 mg/L), silica (<1 to 54.5 mg/L), and sulfate (1.3 to 735 mg/L). Removal of As showed minor effects on the chemistry of groundwater samples, therefore most of the water quality parameters remained within the US EPA MCLs. Overall, results of this study could help develop a simple one-step process to remove As from groundwater.

Removal of Trace Elements by Cupric Oxide Nanoparticles from Uranium <em>In Situ</em> Recovery Bleed Water and Its Effect on Cell Viability

“…However, the concentration of calcium in the PBW is high enough that a nanoparticle-induced decrease may not have been apparent. It is still unlikely that the CuO-NPs used in this study are absorbing large amounts of calcium during processing, because there was no decrease in arsenic absorption capabilities of the CuO-NPs in PBW, which contains high levels of calcium compared to earlier studies with groundwater with a lower calcium concentrations 13 .…”

“…Previous studies reported that CuO-NPs removed arsenic from groundwater 11,13,30,31 . This study supports these previous findings and also reports that CuO-NPs remove additional contaminants from PBW.…”

“…Analyze acidified PBW aliquots for cations by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) as described in Reddy and Roth (2012) 13 .…”

“…Prepare unacidified aliquots (20 ml) of CuO-NP-treated and untreated PBW and analyze the unacidified aliquots for anions by ion chromatography (IC) as described in Reddy and Roth (2012) 13 .…”

Environmental behavior, potential phytotoxicity, and accumulation of copper oxide nanoparticles and arsenic in rice plants

“…In particular, the maximum adsorption capacity of CuO NPs was much higher than that of its bulk counterpart. The maximum adsorption capacity of CuO NPs was reported to be 26.9 mg/g CuO NPs for As(III) and 22.6 mg/g CuO NPs for As(V), whereas the maximum removal of As from water by bulk CuO was approximately 369 μg As/g CuO . Moreover, As(III) adsorption to CuO NPs showed greater dependence on pH (6–11) and ranged from 62 to 83%, whereas As(V) was relatively independent of pH in the range and consistent from 90 to 97%.…”