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Heavy metal contamination of our environment is a daunting challenge facing the world today, from groundwater, to surface water, to the air that we breathe. Prevention, or remediation, of heavy metal pollution is therefore a key component of "green" manufacturing, technology sustainability and responsible environmental stewardship. Self-assembled monolayers on mesoporous supports (SAMMS™ ) is a new class of materials that effectively, safely, and simply removes and recovers metals from liquid media, industrial waste, and produced water. SAMMS™ absorbs large quantities of metals without creating secondary waste, and is disposable as nonhazardous waste. By tailoring the interfacial chemistry of SAMMS™ , it is possible to make sorbents that are highly selective for a variety of different classes of contaminants, like heavy metals, lanthanides and actinides, iodine, cesium and oxometallate anions. SAMMS™ sorption kinetics are rapid, and the contaminant laden SAMMS™ are stable and easily handled.
Performance Summary
- Macrocations (Ca, Mg, Na, K) and Macroanions (Cl, CN, HCO3, CO3, SO4) do not affect adsorption
- High loading (~ 40 - 600 mg/g). Fast Adsorption kinetics (~99.9% in 5 min)
- High Selectivity Coefficient (Kd ~ 103 - 106 ml/g)
- Highly stable waste form (low disposal cost, vitrifiable)
Awards
Journal Covers
"Environmental Applications for Nanomaterials: Synthesis, Sorbents and Sensors" published by Imperial College Press is now available at: World Scientific and Amazon.com.
This book describes current examples in the field, and would serve well as a textbook for a graduate level course in materials science and/or environmental chemistry.