Thermally Driven Separation of Perfluoroalkyl Substances with High Efficiency

Jia Xiang; Wenjiang Zheng; Jie Yan; XiaoFeng Liang; Haibo Zhang; Bo Liu; Wei Zou

doi:10.1021/acsami.0c09599

Thermally Driven Separation of Perfluoroalkyl Substances with High Efficiency

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Sep 9;12(36):40759-40767. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c09599. Epub 2020 Aug 27.

Authors

Jia Xiang¹, Wenjiang Zheng¹, Jie Yan¹, XiaoFeng Liang¹, Haibo Zhang², Bo Liu², Wei Zou¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry and Engineering, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Zigong 643000, P R China.
² Zhonghao Chenguang Chemical Research Institute of Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., Zigong 643201, P R China.

PMID: 32811144
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c09599

Abstract

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), can contaminate the surface and groundwater. Common treatment strategies and adsorbents have low adsorption efficiencies and poor selectivity toward PFASs because of the extremely low surface energy of these compounds. This paper reports the use of a phenolic resin (PR) modified with perfluoroalkyl (PFA) segments and thermally sensitive poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) segments (PR-PEG-PFA) to remove PFOA and PFOS from water. The modified PR microspheres captured >90% of PFASs and were insensitive to common anionic surfactants. By treating simulated wastewater six times with this material, the PFOA concentration in water was reduced from 1 ppm to 43 ppt (43 ng L^-1), showing that PR-PEG-PFA is a promising adsorbent for PFAS separation, recovery, and recycling.

Keywords: high efficiency; perfluoroalkyl substances; selective recognition; separation; thermal sensitivity.