New glucamine based highly porous polymers for the adsorption of arsenic from water

Arsenic contamination of drinking water has become as a high priority worldwide problem that affects the health of millions of people. Arsenic compounds are considered as highly toxic substances and their long terms exposure through drinking water causes a severe chronic poisoning. Symptoms of this pathology called arsenicosis include skin lesions as hyperpigmentation, hyperkeratosis, as well as cancers in skin, lung, kidney, bladder. (1) Arsenic contamination is worst in Asian countries where it has been reported that 79.9 million people in Bangladesh and 42.7 million in India are exposed to groundwater having above 50 ?g/L. (2, 3) Currently, the maximum arsenic concentration for drinking water is fixed by the World Health Organization (WHO) at 10 ?g/L. (4) Many techniques have been developed to remove arsenic compounds from water, including coagulation-flocculation, membrane filtration, adsorption and ion exchange. (5) Among various substances developed for the adsorption of arsenic, glucamine based materials have found considerable interest. (6) We have synthesized a new highly porous, glucamine based, polymeric material able to remove arsenic from water with high efficiency. After treatment with this material, the arsenic concentration of a contaminated sample falls far below the permitted limit value for drinking water. Study on efficiency for arsenic removal and selectivity towards other anions will be reported. References: 1. Ratnaike, R. Postgrad. Med. J. 2003, 79, 391-396. 2. Chakraborti, D.; Rahman, M.T.; Das, B.; Murrill, M.; Dey, S.; Mukherjee, S.; Quamruzzaman, Q. Water Res. 2010, 44, 5789-5802. 3. Maity, J.; Nath, B.; Kar, S.; Chen, C.; Banerjee, S.; Jean, J.; Santra, S. Environ. Geochem. Health 2012, 34, 563-574. 4. WHO. Arsenic in Drinking Water; Organisation, W.H., Ed.; WHO: Geneva, Switzerland, 2011. 5. Nicomel, N. R.; Leus K.; Folens K.; Van Der Voort P.; Du Laing G. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13, 62. 6. Urbano, B. F.; Rivas, B. L.; Martinez, F.; Alexandratos S. D. Reactive & Functional Polymers 2012, 72, 642-649.