PERSPECTIVE OF MULTIWALLED CARBON NANOTUBES FOR WATER
TREATMENT: ACETAMINOPHEN ADSORPTION AND DEGRADATION BY
GAMMA IRRADIATION
Ulises Jáuregui-Haza1*, Asiel Hernández Martínez2, Michel Valdés Callado1, Katia
González Labrada3, Manuel Rapado4, Armando Chávez4, Philippe Serp5, Revathi R.
Bacsa5
1Instituto
Superior de Tecnologías y Ciencias Aplicadas (InSTEC), Ave. Salvador
Allende y Luaces, La Habana, Cuba; 2Universidad de Artemisa, 3Instituto Superior
Politécnico José Antonio Echeverría, 5Instituto Nacional Politécnico de Toulouse
*e-mail: ulises@instec.cu
With the purpose of makes more efficient the treatment of polluted wastewater with
Persistent Organic Pollutant (POP), researchers are working on processes
integration. It is well known that conventional processes for wastewater treatment do
not guarantee POP elimination, that is why Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP)
are evaluated as emergent technologies for degradation of this kind of compounds.
An interesting approach might be the integration of adsorption and AOP for
decontamination of waters containing POP. In this work the first results of
acetaminophen adsorption on Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes, MWCNT, and later
degradation of adsorbed acetaminophen by gamma irradiation are presented. The
acetaminophen was adsorbed on studied nanostructures, with an adsorption
capacity of 91.4 mg per each gram of adsorbent. After saturation with
acetaminophen, carbon nanotubes were irradiated in water. Gamma irradiation
showed desorption and degradation of pharmaceutical from nanostructure at 5kGy.
Over 40 kGy the signal corresponding to the pharmaceutical disappears from
aqueous phase. Physical-chemical characterization of MWCNT confirmed the
adsorption/desorption processes, evidencing that functionalization of the
nanostructure does not exist and interactions that prevailed were electrostatic and
hydrogen bond types. These results show the perspective of integrating the
processes of adsorption on Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes and further degradation
of the drug bay gamma irradiation for the treatment of water contaminated with POP.