Potential of various materials for adsorption of micropollutants from wastewater

Performance of various materials such as activated carbons, carbon nanotubes, fullerene, and alu- minosilicate for aquatic adsorption of micropollutants has been compared. Micropollutants (bis- phenol A (BPA) and nonylphenol (NP)) were removed from artificial effluent which was spiked with standards of those chemicals. It was found that nonylphenol was more favorable adsorbed by all the sorbents than BPA. The higher adsorption capacities for BPA and NP showed single walled carbon nanotubes and activated carbon (AKPA). Slightly lower removal efficiencies of the studied micropol-lutants were observed for the multi-walled carbon nanotubes and activated carbon SX2. Taking into account the porous structure of the sorbents, it can be concluded that the materials containing meso- pores had lower sorption capacities for BPA and NP than materials with microporous structure. Ad-sorption of micropollutants was much quicker for the carbon nanotubes than for the activated carbon.