Amit Bansiwal

Removal of As(III) and As(V) from water by copper oxide incorporated mesoporous alumina

In the present manuscript a new adsorbent namely copper oxide incorporated mesoporous alumina (COIMA) for removal of arsenic from water is reported. The COIMA was prepared by treating mesoporous alumina with copper sulphate solution followed by calcination at 450°C in the presence of air. Various adsorption isotherm and kinetic parameters were computed using batch adsorption studies to determine the adsorption capacity for As(III) and As(V) and to understand the mechanism of adsorption. It was observed that incorporation of copper oxide improves the adsorption capacity of unmodified alumina from 0.92 to 2.16 mg g(-1) for As(III) and from 0.84 to 2.02 mg g(-1) for As(V). The results revealed that the adsorption follows Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic models for both As(III) and As(V). The material is capable of simultaneously removing As(III) and As(V) with removal efficiencies of more than 95% for both As(III) and As(V). Assessment of the water quality before and after treatment with COIMA also confirmed that the there is no leaching of copper and other parameters were also within permissible limits of Indian drinking water standard indicating that the COIMA can be used for treatment of arsenic contaminated drinking water.

Integrated bio-oxidation and adsorptive filtration reactor for removal of arsenic from wastewater

ABSTRACT Recently, removal of arsenic from different industrial effluent discharged using simple, efficient and low-cost technique has been widely considered. In this study, removal of arsenic (As) from real wastewater has been studied employing modified bio-oxidation followed by adsorptive filtration method in a novel continuous flow through the reactor. This method includes biological oxidation of ferrous to ferric ions by immobilized Acidothiobacillus ferrooxidans bacteria on granulated activated carbon (GAC) in fixed bed bio-column reactor with the adsorptive filtration unit. Removal efficiency was optimized regarding the initial flow rate of media and ferrous ions concentration. Synthetic wastewater sample having different heavy metal ions such as Arsenic (As), Cobalt (Co), Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Lead (Pb) and Manganese (Mn) were also used in the study. The structural and surface changes occurring after the treatment process were scrutinized using FT-IR and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis. The finding showed that not only arsenic can be removed considerably in the bioreactor system, but also removing efficiency was much more (<90%) for other heavy metals in real wastewater sample. The results from TCPL test confirms that solid spent media was non-hazardous and can be safely disposed of. This study verified that combination of bio-oxidation with adsorptive filtration method improves the removal efficiency of arsenic and other heavy metal ions in wastewater sample.

An improved method for direct estimation of free cyanide in drinking water by Ion Chromatography-Pulsed Amperometry Detection (IC-PAD) on gold working electrode

In the present work a fast, reliable and safe Ion Exchange Chromatography-Pulsed Amperometry Detection (IC-PAD) method for direct determination of free cyanide in drinking water has been reported. To the best of our knowledge for the first time we are reporting the application of Gold working electrode for detection of free cyanide in a chromatography system. The system shows a wide linear range up to 8000µg/L. The electrode was found to have improved sensitivity and selectivity in the presence of interfering ions. The detection limit of the system was calculated to be 2µg/L. Long term evaluation of the electrode was found to be stable. Reproducible results were obtained from analysis of drinking water samples with recoveries of 98.3-101.2% and Relative Standard Deviations (RSD) of <2%. This study proves the potential application of the newly developed method for the analysis of free cyanide in drinking water.

Copper Oxide Nanograss for Efficient and Stable Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Production by Water Splitting

A biphasic copper oxide thin film of grass-like appendage morphology is synthesized by two-step electro-deposition method and later investigated for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting for hydrogen production. Further, the thin film was characterized by UV–Visible spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and PEC techniques. The XRD analysis confirms formation of biphasic copper oxide phases, and SEM reveals high surface area grass appendage-like morphology. These grass appendage structures exhibit a high cathodic photocurrent of −xa01.44xa0mAcm−2 at an applied bias of −xa00.7 (versus Ag/AgCl) resulting in incident to photon current efficiency (IPCE) of ∼xa010% at 400xa0nm. The improved light harvesting and charge transport properties of grass appendage structured biphasic copper oxides makes it a potential candidate for PEC water splitting for hydrogen production.Graphical Abstract