Abstracts Book - IMRC 2018

• SF5-P028
APPLICATION OF ZEOLITES FOR THE ADSORPTION OF EMERGING
CONTAMINANTS IN WATER TREATMENT TECHNOLOGIES
Aldo Arteaga Morales 1 , Vitalii Petranovskii 1
1 Centro de Nanociencias y Nanotecnología CNyN-UNAM, Nanocatalysis, Mexico.
The aim of present work is to study the removal efficiency of Contaminants of
Emerging Concern (CECs) in water, using zeolites as adsorbing materials. CECs
are chemical compounds that are normally present in the environment and are
known or suspected of undesirable effects on humans and ecosystems. These
contaminants include pharmaceuticals, pesticides, personal care products,
artificial sweeteners, flame retardants, and others. They are not subject to
routine monitoring in the environment, so only recently they have been
recognized as significant water pollutants.
The adsorption process is a state-of-the-art of removing the CECs during water
purification. Among the most promising materials in adsorption technologies
for the removal of CECs are zeolites, which are microporous crystalline minerals.
Zeolites structures are composed by TO 4 tetrahedra where T can be silicon (Si)
or aluminum (Al), and O represents oxygen atoms. TO 4 tetrahedra can be
grouped and arranged in the crystal lattice in many ways, resulting in a complex
framework with different porosities, channels and cages. Zeolite pores are able
to adsorb molecules that fit tightly inside them, and exclude molecules that are
too large, acting as sieves on a molecular scale.
Mordenite and clinoptilolite zeolites were chosen because of their previous
utilization in different water treatment research. In order to get materials with
different hydrophobic and organophilic characteristics, zeolites with different
Si/Al molar ratio were obtained via dealumination/desilication. The chemical
composition of final materials was determinate by Inductively Coupled
Plasma/Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP/OES) technique.
Textural properties, such as surface area, pore volume and pore size, were
obtained via N 2 sorption isotherms. The morphology of the obtained materials
was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The Lewis and Bronsted
acid properties were investigated by means of IR spectroscopy and Temperature
Programmed Desorption of ammonia. Zeolites were evaluated as adsorbents in
both batch and column experiments. The detection and quantitation of CECs in