Nanoparticles Infused Mesoporous Material for Water Treatment Processes

Abstract

In current study, a hybrid mesoporous material infused with metallic oxide nanoparticles, MCM-48 with TiO2 nanoparticles, has been developed for potential application in water treatment. Using this unique hybrid structure, it can combine the advantages of the effective pollutants removal capability of metallic oxide nanoparticles, and the strong yet high permeable structure of mesoporous material. A modified hydrothermal method has been developed to synthesize three hybrid samples with TiO2 nanoparticles of three assorted sizes (15, 50 and 300nm), and their structure have also been characterized. The synthesized samples are tested for its capability of removing organic dye and trace metals using ICP-MS. The results have shown that while all three hybrid materials have shown over 80% adsorption rate for organic dye, the sample synthesized using 300nm TiO2 nanoparticle has shown the highest adsorption rate. Similarly, the highest adsorption rate for most trace metals test here also occurs in the sample made with 300nm TiO2 nanoparticle. Coincidentally, the sample prepared with 300nm TiO2 nanoparticle has a much larger internal surface area and smaller average pore size compared to the two other samples, which may lead to the higher adsorption rate of trace metals and organic dye tested here. This study has presented a hybrid mesoporous material that can be potentially used for pollutants removal of water treatment. Future studies are still needed to fully explore this hybrid material and its capability in water treatment.