TY - JOUR
T1 - Ion-Exchange Treatment of Perfluorinated Carboxylic Acids in Water
T2 - Comparison of Polystyrenic and Polyacrylic Resin Structures and Impact of Sulfate on Their Performance
AU - Rahman, M. Feisal
AU - Anderson, William B.
AU - Peldszus, Sigrid
AU - Huck, Peter M.
N1 - Funding information: We gratefully acknowledge the funding support for this work provided by the Ontario Research Fund “Center for Control of Emerging Contaminants” project, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the NSERC Industrial Research Chair partners. Current partners may be found at https://uwaterloo.ca/nserc-chair-water-treatment/partners.
PY - 2022/7/8
Y1 - 2022/7/8
N2 - The removal of three perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs)-PFHpA, PFOA, and PFNA-in ultrapure and river water was evaluated using two anion-exchange resins-previously unreported macroporous polystyrenic A-500P and a more widely studied macroporous polyacrylic A-860. Both resins had similar properties, allowing direct comparison of PFCA removal performance between the two resin structures/matrices. This study also presents a new gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) method developed for PFCA analysis in water. In ultrapure water, A-500P exhibited higher removal capacity and faster removal compared to A-860, suggesting greater effectiveness of the polystyrenic structure compared to the polyacrylic structure. In the Grand River water, the target PFCAs were well removed by A-500P but not A-860. However, both resins achieved similarly high overall reductions of dissolved organic carbon (∼75%), suggesting, later confirmed in ultrapure water experiments, that inorganic anions (sulfate particularly) were the dominant competitors for the A-860 resin. The uncharged styrenic and acrylic beads (base materials) of the two tested resins were unable to remove PFOA, implying that the dominant removal mechanism involves charge interactions between the negatively charged PFCA and the positively charged anion-exchange functional groups.
AB - The removal of three perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs)-PFHpA, PFOA, and PFNA-in ultrapure and river water was evaluated using two anion-exchange resins-previously unreported macroporous polystyrenic A-500P and a more widely studied macroporous polyacrylic A-860. Both resins had similar properties, allowing direct comparison of PFCA removal performance between the two resin structures/matrices. This study also presents a new gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) method developed for PFCA analysis in water. In ultrapure water, A-500P exhibited higher removal capacity and faster removal compared to A-860, suggesting greater effectiveness of the polystyrenic structure compared to the polyacrylic structure. In the Grand River water, the target PFCAs were well removed by A-500P but not A-860. However, both resins achieved similarly high overall reductions of dissolved organic carbon (∼75%), suggesting, later confirmed in ultrapure water experiments, that inorganic anions (sulfate particularly) were the dominant competitors for the A-860 resin. The uncharged styrenic and acrylic beads (base materials) of the two tested resins were unable to remove PFOA, implying that the dominant removal mechanism involves charge interactions between the negatively charged PFCA and the positively charged anion-exchange functional groups.
KW - drinking water
KW - ion exchange
KW - natural organic matter
KW - per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) removal
KW - perfluorinated carboxylic acid (PFCA) removal
KW - sulfate
U2 - 10.1021/acsestwater.1c00501
DO - 10.1021/acsestwater.1c00501
M3 - Article
C2 - 35846407
VL - 2
SP - 1195
EP - 1205
JO - ACS Environmental Science and Technology Water
JF - ACS Environmental Science and Technology Water
IS - 7
ER -
