CAREER: Novel Use of Carbon Fibers for Removal of Priority Pollutants from Aqueous Solutions

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Given the increasingly stringent water quality standards and public concern over environmental issues, environmental engineers must aggressively pursue innovative, selective, and versatile treatment technologies for solving current pollution problems and preventing new ones. Carbon fibers (CFs) are, perhaps, the most innovative and successful carbon material developed within the past forty years. Although their applications in the control of environmental pollution are limited, today carbon fibers are used from sporting goods to aircraft structures. CFs pose an attractive alternative to traditional granular (GAC) and powdered (PAC) activated carbon treatment methods because their properties are superior to GACs and PACs. Research Objectives. The use of CFs in drinking water and industrial wastewater treatment applications offers exciting possibilities. Therefore, the primary goal of the research component of this CAREER proposal is to systematically investigate the efficacy of using carbon fibers for removing priority pollutants from aqueous solutions so that efficient treatment systems can be developed for use in environmental engineering applications. Specific objectives to address this goal are: 1) investigation of the mechanisms of adsorption of small-molecular weight organic chemicals and organic macromolecules by carbon fibers in aqueous phase, 2) investigation of the mechanisms of competitive adsorption, including preloading effects, on carbon fibers, and 3) assessment of the feasibility and efficacy of carbon fibers for use in environmental treatment systems.Teaching Objectives. The primary educational goal of this proposal is to develop computer animations for teaching fundamentals of physicochemical processes to undergraduate and graduate students. Several such products have already been developed for basic science courses, however there is practically no material for environmental engineering education. Relatively well-known principles of physicochemical processes are one of the most suitable areas to describe and demonstrate using computer animations and visual-aids. In addition, graduate level curses on water treatment design and on surfaces and interfaces in the aquatic environments will be developed to meet the needs in the Department of Environmental Engineering and Science at Clemson University. The research findings will be employed in these courses and they will be incorporated directly into the PI's educational activities.