Investigating the Effect of Carbon Shape on Virus Adsorption

Abstract

Batch adsorption isotherm and column breakthrough studies were conducted to compare two types of activated carbon with very different structural characteristics; granular Calgon F-400 and an activated carbon fiber composite (ACFC). Carbons were evaluated for virus adsorption capacity using a bacteriophage, MS2. Two mesh fractions of each carbon type were used in batch adsorption studies to determine empirical isotherm coefficients from linear regression analysis. Freundlich isotherm models adequately described MS2 bacteriophage adsorption to both carbon types. Adsorption capacity was found to vary with carbon size for both types of carbon but for different reasons. Although adsorption isotherm capacities would have predicted the GAC carbon to provide better removals than the ACFC, carbon breakthrough column performance for equal weights of material showed virus removal to be markedly more efficient on a gram-to-gram basis for ACFC than for GAC.

Removal of bacteriophages MS2 and phiX174 from aqueous solutions using a red soil

“…Best-fit values of the parameters K and 1/n and goodness-of-fit values for nonsterilized and sterilized soils are given in Table 4 for each bacteriophage. The K value indicates adsorptive capacity [50], and the 1/n is related to the strength of the adsorption forces between the adsorbate and the adsorbent [13]. The results clearly show that K values were significantly larger for MS2 than for phiX174 regardless of soil sterilization or not, resulting from increased amount of MS2 adsorption and indicating higher adsorptive capacity of MS2, relative to phiX174.…”

“…You et al [14] reported that MS2 sorption by Mg-Al LDH 2 completed with the first 1 h of sorption and, results from Stagg et al [64] showed that during the first 45 min, about 80% bacteriophage MS2 was adsorbed on the clay. Powell et al [13] results showed that 90% of MS2 had been adsorbed by powdered activated carbon within the first 2 h. You et al [16] demonstrated that removal of MS2 and phiX174 by commercial iron was rapid. The red soil's characteristics of rapid virus removal by inactivation and/or irreversible adsorption combined with its high adsorption capacity suggest that the red soil may be a promising sorbent to be used.…”

“…Powell et al [13] reported that activated carbon might be used for virus removal at the heart of point-of-use devices for individual water treatment, and the removal efficiency was strongly determined by the shape of carbon, however, they did not investigate the fate (adsorption or inactivation) of retained viruses. Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) posses positively charged surfaces and high surface area.…”

Surface characterization of electrodeposited silver on activated carbon for bactericidal purposes

“…One way to foster new applications involves the modification of their surfaces through chemical reactions or through deposition of new materials with attractive properties, such as bactericidal agents [4,5]. In this respect, silver is an excellent candidate that complies with the bactericidal requirements [6][7][8], since it can be deposited on either conductive or nonconductive surfaces such as activated carbons. Silver can be deposited following reduction procedures involving a direct reduction from silver nitrate solutions over carbon followed by evaporation, as proposed by Gamburzev et al [9].…”

Measurement of Biocolloid Collision Efficiencies for Granular Activated Carbon by Use of a Two-Layer Filtration Model

“…Batch adsorption tests have confirmed that microorganisms adsorb exclusively to the exterior surface of GAC due to pore size exclusion (24,25,27), but they do not provide information that is sufficient to predict removal rates in columns. Mass transfer models can be used to characterize chemical removal with GAC in packed beds, but they do not provide detailed information concerning particle removal mechanisms.…”