Synthesis and application of a green surfactant for the treatment of water containing PFAS/ hazardous metal ions

Farzaneh Ziaee; Mohammad Ziaee; Mojtaba Taseidifar

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124800

Synthesis and application of a green surfactant for the treatment of water containing PFAS/ hazardous metal ions

J Hazard Mater. 2021 Apr 5:407:124800. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124800. Epub 2020 Dec 13.

Authors

Farzaneh Ziaee¹, Mohammad Ziaee², Mojtaba Taseidifar³

Affiliations

¹ Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
² School of Science, UNSW Canberra, Northcott Drive, Canberra, ACT 2610, Australia. Electronic address: m.ziaee@student.unsw.edu.au.
³ School of Science, UNSW Canberra, Northcott Drive, Canberra, ACT 2610, Australia.

PMID: 33359975
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124800

Abstract

In this work, the effectiveness of a biodegradable and natural surfactant synthesized through a novel method has been studied through the ion flotation process to treat waters containing Per/Poly Fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) and heavy-metal ions. This cysteine-based surfactant, which is environmentally acceptable, showed considerable solubility and foaming ability over a wide range of pH. It also could remove 97-99(%) of 5 mg/L of cadmium, chromium, copper, nickel, zinc, and manganese ions in a single batch physicochemical process. Moreover, for the first time, a foam fractionation method in association with using this cysteine-based surfactant was applied for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) removal from water. This surfactant was used as a co-surfactant and could readily remove 72% of PFOA (40 mg/L) from water. The characterization of the surfactant was undertaken using ¹H NMR, FT-IR, elemental analysis, melting point, and determination of its critical micelle concentration (CMC). This environmentally friendly surfactant has high potential applications in green chemistry especially in the treatment of waters contaminated with PFAS/heavy-metal ions.

Keywords: Green surfactant; Hazardous metals; Health concern; PFAS; Water pollution.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't