Arsenic contamination in groundwater is of major concern to many water treatment
facilities in the world. It is generally known that As(III) is more toxic than As(V) and
organic forms of arsenic. Various treatment technologies have been applied to remove
arsenic from drinking water such as coagulation-precipitation, reverse osmosis, ion
exchange, and adsorption-filtration. Adsorption processes are often considered to be
the most effective forms of treatment for As(V), but they can be limited in their ability to
remove As(III). To enhance removal efficiency of adsorption process for As(III), this
study has focused on developing highly ordered mesoporous adsorbents (HOMAs).
One approach for fabricating reactive sites for As(III) in HOMAs is to incorporate nanoscaled
titania (TiO2) into a mesoporous silicate molecular sieve such as SBA-15.
Another approach is to fabricate O-Ti-O sites by producing mesoporous titania (MT).
Kinetic tests at different initial pH (4, 7, 9.5) were conducted with As(III) to evaluate
rates of adsorption and ultimate sorption capacity of two HOMAs. Greater extents of
adsorption were observed at higher pH for mesoporous titania, but silicate molecular
sieve with incorporated titania showed the most removal of As(III) at the intermediate
pH (pH 7). Includes 10 references, figures.