In this work, we report the reduction of chromium concentration in the polluted groundwater samples from Madurai Kamaraj University area, India, where the dissolved salts in groundwater are reported as serious health hazards for its inhabitants. The water samples have intolerable amounts of total dissolved solids (TDS) and chromium is a prominent pollutant among them. Chromium reduction was achieved by treating the polluted groundwater with PANI/Fe3O4 nanocomposites synthesized by in situ polymerization method. Further experimentation showed that the nanocomposites exhibit better chromium removal characteristics upon increasing the aniline concentration during the synthesis. We were able to reduce chromium concentration in the samples from 0.295 mg L-1 to a tolerable amount of 0.144 mg L-1. This work is expected to open doors for chromium-free groundwater in various regions of India, when improved to an industrial scale.
Keywords: Cr removal; Groundwater; In situ polymerization; PANI/Fe3O4; Polymer nanocomposites.