Efficient Removal of Pollutants in Wastewater by Continuous Admicelle-Flotation System

水中的表面活性剂分子通过静电或疏水相互作用吸附在固体表面形成亚胶束。在本研究中，Admicelles作为一种新型的分离和浓缩介质的废水处理和水质评价进行了研究。由于吸附胶束能够通过疏水相互作用将水不溶性化合物掺入其烃核中，因此尝试通过使用这些吸附胶束或疏水配体浸渍的吸附胶束来收集有机和无机污染物。为了比较，在液-液界面上形成的表面活性剂聚集体（即，采用多种阴离子、阳离子和非离子表面活性剂以及固体材料（氧化铝、硅胶、交联葡聚糖凝胶和聚苯乙烯珠），设计了优化的表面活性剂胶束。所得的亚胶束提供了一些疏水性有机污染物的定量收集，多环芳烃和氯苯酚，以及有毒重金属（转化为疏水螯合物后）在分批和柱操作。该胶束还可以有效地收集有价值的物质，如酶和贵金属。此外，掺入所需物质的admicelles很容易漂浮在水面上，有许多微小的气泡。这种现象归因于胶束的长烷基链容易粘附到气-水界面的趋势。与间歇操作和柱操作相比，微团-浮选方案可以更有效地分离和富集水中的污染物。由于我们在浮选技术方面有着丰富的经验，因此，对微团浮选技术的深入研究将为废水处理开辟一条高效的途径。

Surfactant molecules in water are adsorbed on solid surfaces to form admicelles by electrostatic or hydrophobic interactions. In the present study, admicelles were examined as novel separation and concentration media for the wastewater treatment and the assessment of water quality. Since admicelles are capable of incorporating water-insoluble compounds into their hydrocarbon cores by the hydrophobic interaction, attempts were made to collect organic and inorganic pollutants by using these admicelles or hydrophobic ligand-impregnated admicelles. For a comparison, surfactant aggregates formed on liquid-liquid interfaces (i.e., water-in-oil emulsion) were also investigated in detail.Optimized admicelles were designed using several kinds of anionic, cationic, and nonionic surfactants and solid materials (including alumina, silica gel, cross-linked dextran gel, and polystyrene beads). The resulting admicelles provided the quantitative collection of some hydrophobic organic pollutants, e.g., polyaromatic hydrocarbons and chlorophenols, and toxic heavy metals (after the conversion into hydrophobic chelates) in batch and column operations. The admicelles were also effective to collect valuable substances, such as enzymes and precious metals. In addition, the admicelles incorporating desired substances were easily floated onto the water surface with numerous tiny bubbles. This phenomenon owes to the tendency of the long alkyl chains of the admicelles to readily adhere to the gas-water interfaces. Compared with the batch and column operations, the admicelle-flotation scheme allowed to perform the separation and preconcentration of pollutants in water more efficiently. Because we have considerable experience of the flotation technique, further studies on the admicelle-flotation will open the highly efficient methodology for the wastewater treatment.