Pollution magnet: nano-magnetite for arsenic removal from drinking water

Abstract

Arsenic contamination in groundwater is a severe global problem, most notably in Southeast Asia where millions suffer from acute and chronic arsenic poisoning. Removing arsenic from groundwater in impoverished rural or urban areas without electricity and with no manufacturing infrastructure remains a significant challenge. Magnetite nanocrystals have proven to be useful in arsenic remediation and could feasibly be synthesized by a thermal decomposition method that employs refluxing of FeOOH and oleic acid in 1-octadecene in a laboratory setup. To reduce the initial cost of production, $US 2600/kg, and make this nanomaterial widely available, we suggest that inexpensive and accessible "everyday" chemicals be used. Here we show that it is possible to create functional and high-quality nanocrystals using methods appropriate for manufacturing in diverse and minimal infrastructure, even those without electricity. We suggest that the transfer of this knowledge is best achieved using an open source concept.

Arsenic Adsorption onto Minerals: Connecting Experimental Observations with Density Functional Theory Calculations

“…Alumina has been found to effectively remove iAs V [55], but it is necessary to use activated alumina to efficiently remove iAs III from solution [56]. A multitude of studies on As adsorbents have been conducted using Fe-based mineral sorbents [57,58], such as magnetite [54,[59][60][61][62][63], ferrihydrite [53,54,[64][65][66], goethite [48,54,66,67], and zero-valent iron [62].…”

Magnetite Nanoparticle Green Synthesis from Canola Oil

“…Rust is the common replacement of FeOOH,. The new chemical reaction 12 then becomes: Soap(mixture of fatty acid salts) is produced by saponification of canola oil , The FAM, which is a mixture of long-chain organic acids, forms once this soap is acidified with vinegar. There are different fatty acids that constitute FAMs, but four of these are almost always dominant 13 : oleic acid [(9Z)-octadec-9-enoic acid], linoleic acid [(9Z, 12Z)-octadeca-9, 12-dienoic acid], stearic acid (octadecanoic acid), and palmitic acid (hexadecanoic acid)…”

“…Although arsenic-contaminated ground water belongs to local scale pollution, this problem prevails all over the world.Traditional treatment technologies are not effective and magnetite nanoparticle seems to be a good alternative due to its highly selective adsorption toward arsenic and feasibility on regeneration.This nanomaterial exhibited high As(V) adsorption capacity, up to 206.9 mg g-1, which is the highest reported . [12] .…”

“…So our aim is to synthesize magnetite nanoparticles for environment friendly uses through chemicals readily available in open market. Earlier soya bean, corn and olive oil were used to synthesize nanomaterials by kitchen synthesis [12] .…”

The molecular structure of the mineral beudantite PbFe3(AsO4,SO4)2(OH)6 – Implications for arsenic accumulation and removal

“…It is known that ferric chloride and FeO(OH) are useful for the entrapment of arsenic [40][41][42][43].…”