Report: Introduction to Nano Technology (CH3580)

Water Filtration: Nano Technology

Mohammed Wasay Mudassir
Water filtration techniques basically concentrate on removal of Dissolved Organic Carbons

(DOCs), heavy metal impurities, contaminants, suspended solids. The filtration techniques aren’t so perfect

leading to traces of some germs, contaminants and very small particles which could lead to adverse effects

on the living beings not just due their ingestion but also due to the adverse effect on the environment if let

free without purifying the water.

Carbon Nano Tubes (CNTs) are found to be more efficient in case of affinity (adsorption) of

organic compounds when compared with the activated carbon. This could be achieved by engineering the

CNTs by functionalizing it with groups like carboxyl, alcohol and other oxidised forms so that they could

adsorb both polar and non-polar organic compounds as well as heavy metals more efficiently.

Oxidized Carbon Nano Tubes (CNTs) have better efficiency than activated carbon in the removal

of heavy metals like Cd2+, Zn2+, Cu2+ and Pb2+ as it has fast kinetics (diffusion through the micropore wall

is fast in CNTs but a slow step in activated carbon due to the size), but in polishing stages which would

require less amount of CNTs and hence cost effective.

Metal based Nano Adsorbents Iron oxide, Titanium dioxide and Alumina are found to have good

ability of trapping heavy metals like Ni, Cd, Cr, Pb, Cu, As and radio nuclides. In a study it was found that

the adsorption capacity of Nano magnetite was increased by 100 times if its size was reduced from 300 nm

to 11 nm. The use of Iron oxide and TiO2 based Nano adsorbents has been commercialized due their

relatively lost and easy regeneration by just altering the pH.

Polymeric Nano Adsorbents like Dendrimers have an exceptional ability to trap both metals and the

organic compounds. Generally, their interior shells are hydrophobic making it favourable for the sorption of

the organic compounds while their tail parts can be tailored by introducing carboxyl or amine terminated

compounds for the adsorption of heavy metals. The interaction for the adsorption in this case may be due to

complexation, electrostatic interactions, hydrophobic effect or hydrogen bonding. A dendrimer based ultra-
filtration setup was able to completely remove 10 ppm of Cu2+ ions present in the solution and interestingly

the dendrimer could be recovered by ultrafiltration and reducing the pH to 4.

The application of Nano adsorbents could be incorporated in the existing water treatment plants as

then both have high adsorption capacity and very fast kinetics. But the main drawback is that we will require

an additional separation unit which implies extra cost and maintenance to recover the Nano adsorbents along

with their high cost. The use of Fixed Bed Reactors could be a solution for not having an additional

separation unit, but the potential drawback is due to the limitations in mass transfer and head losses.

Adsorption of Arsenic using Nano adsorbents has been commercialized. ArsenXnp is a commercially

available ion exchange medium which uses iron oxide Nano particles while ADSORBSIATM uses

nanocrystalline TiO2 medium for the removal of Arsenic. The treatment cost in ArsenXnp is as low as $0.25-

$0.35/1000-gal water purified.

Membranes could be made of Nano materials but the main challenge being the requirement of high

energy as the filtration is a pressure driven process in this case. The fouling adds on to the energy

consumption as well as complexity of the process and design. Nanofiber membranes are being used for air

filtration commercially, but its water filtration capability is largely unexploited.

Nanocomposite membranes could be made by adding nanomaterials into polymeric or inorganic

membranes. Nano-Ag and CNTs can be used to reduce biofouling of the membrane due to their anti-

microbial behaviour. Bacterial inactivation of >90% was achieved using polyvinyl-N-carbazole-SWNT

nanocomposite by just using 3% wt/wt of SWNT.

Nano-photocatalysts like TiO2 semiconductor upon absorbing UV radiation generates electron/hole

pair which lead to the formation of reactive oxygen species (which would degrade the organic compounds)

or undergo undesired recombination which need to be controlled. Nanomaterials due to their high specific

surface area and easily accessible sites, generally have high catalytic activity. There are some potential

challenges in the scale up of photocatalysis are 1.) Optimization to increase yield or to utilise visible light,

2.) Better selectivity of reaction, 3.) Efficient reactor design for better catalyst recovery and immobilization

techniques.
CONCLUDING REMARKS: -

The use of Nano Technology in filtration would cost prohibitively high so we can overcome these by

two ways. 1.) Use of low purity Nano materials by not compromising with the efficiency. 2.) Retention and

Reuse of the Nano material. The second method more important as the health effects of the Nano particles

on humans and environment is not known. Research in the use Nano technology in the water filtration must

be done in a way that it should be compatibly used with the existing technology.

TiO2 based Nano technology is widely being used commercially due its low cost, easy regeneration

and no potential harm on human beings. More research is going on the TiO2 as a Nano-photocatalyst to

extend its excitation spectrum to visible light for the water treatment.

Acknowledgement: -

This is a report on Water Filtration submitted to Dr. Meduri Praveen for the course Introduction to

Nano Technology (CH3580) conducted at Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH).

References: -

1.) Xiaolei Qu, Pedro J.J. Alvarez, Qilin Li. Applications of nanotechnology in water and wastewater

treatment .

2.) Wikipedia.