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

鉴于水质标准的日益严格和公众对环境问题的关注，环境工程师必须积极探索创新、选择性和多功能的处理技术，以解决当前的污染问题，防止新的污染问题。碳纤维(CFs)可能是在过去40年里开发出的最具创新性和最成功的碳材料。尽管碳纤维在环境污染控制中的应用有限，但今天，碳纤维被用于从体育用品到飞机结构。CFS是传统颗粒(GAC)和粉末(PAC)活性碳处理方法的一种有吸引力的替代方法，因为它们的性能优于GAC和PAC。研究目标。CFS在饮用水和工业废水处理应用中的使用提供了令人兴奋的可能性。因此，这份职业计划的研究部分的主要目标是系统地研究使用碳纤维去除水溶液中优先污染物的有效性，以便开发用于环境工程应用的高效处理系统。实现这一目标的具体目标是：1)研究碳纤维在水相中吸附小分子有机化学品和有机大分子的机理，2)研究碳纤维竞争吸附的机理，包括预加载效应，以及3)评估碳纤维用于环境处理系统的可行性和有效性。这项建议的主要教育目标是开发计算机动画，用于向本科生和研究生教授物理化学过程基础。已经为基础科学课程开发了几个这样的产品，但实际上还没有用于环境工程教育的材料。物理化学过程的相对众所周知的原理是最适合使用计算机动画和视觉辅助工具来描述和演示的领域之一。此外，将开发关于水处理设计以及水环境中表面和界面的研究生级别的诅咒，以满足克莱姆森大学环境工程和科学系的需要。研究成果将用于这些课程，并将直接纳入国际和平协会的教育活动。

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.