Fiber adsorbent for remediation of multisolute contamination in drinking water.

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Project Summary The water treatment product developed in this SBIR program will give more people the opportunity to live healthier lives and will strengthen communities by increasing available potable water resources. The contamination of drinking water is an age-old problem which has been made worse in recent decades by man-made toxins (pharmaceuticals, plasticizers, pesticides, disinfectant by-products, etc.) entering drinking water reservoirs via wastewater, agricultural runoff, storm water, and polluted air and soil. Exposure to these toxins through drinking water is leading to chronic, complex diseases; the burden of which falls primarily on socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. Removal of these toxic compounds is imperative to protect health. Traditional adsorption technologies which are relatively straightforward and cost-effective do not have the structural sophistication to allow for the simultaneous removal of a broad spectrum of toxic organic chemicals. Other purification technologies (i.e. reverse osmosis membranes and hydroxyl radicals) have failed to provide a simple and cost-effective means for residential areas to remove the many different organic chemicals now found in drinking water supplies. What is missing from the $3B US residential treatment market is a simple and cost effective POU product for the simultaneous removal of toxic organic and inorganic contaminants. Through this SBIR project, Chemica aims to bring a timely new tool to the field of water treatment/purification that specifically targets difficult to remove contaminants in an easy-to-use and affordable manner. This will be achieved through applying Chemica’s proprietary surface modification techniques to a robust carbon fiber substrate. Chemica’s novel fiber is easily scalable and can be tailored to meet users’ specific needs. Through previous efforts Chemica has developed adsorbents to target either organic toxins or inorganic toxins. The goal for this SBIR program is to develop an adsorbent capable of simultaneous adsorption of BOTH organic and inorganic toxins in a highly efficient mechanism, which will be achieved through the following Specific Aims: 1. Ionic Liquid Assisted Preparation of Functionalized Fiber; 2. Characterization of Toxic Organic and Inorganic Chemical Removal by ACFs. Key words: drinking water, emerging contaminants, toxicity, adsorbent, carbon fiber, pharmaceuticals, plasticizers, pesticides, disinfectant by-products, heavy metals, lead, coordination chemistry, organic chemistry, VOC, arsenic, remediation, ionic liquids