Creating a new generation of sorbents

Creating a new generation of sorbents for heavy metal ions and strontium removal from water environment

State registration number: 0117U002408

Project duration: 1 January 2017 – 31 December 2019

Project executor: Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University (Project of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine)

Project goals: to develop the scientific basis for the creation of hybrid and composite magnetocontrolled sorbents on the basis of anatase modification of titanium dioxide and other metal oxides and to investigate the heavy metal ions (Ni2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Cr6+, Cr3+) and radionuclides (strontium) removal from the water environment.

Specific project objectives are:

  1. To develop ion-exchange sorbents in the form of rheologically stable colloidal dispersions and in the form of spherical granules with a diameter 1-3 mm.
  2. To synthesize magnetocontrolled composite ion exchangers consisting of titanium phosphate or titanium arsenate sorbent and magnetic nanoparticles MFe2O4 (where M is a transition element).
  3. To investigate the influence of synthesis conditions and modification of synthesized sorbents on their structural characteristics, adsorptive properties and magnetic separation properties in the processes of purification of natural waters contaminated by heavy metals and radionuclides.
  4. To investigate the kinetic parameters of Sr2+ ions sorption from aqueous solutions by sorbents on the basis of anatase modification of titanium dioxide.
  5. To investigate the sorption interaction in the systems “Me (radionuclide)-sorbent” (based on the analysis of the nature of the active centers) and to find the ways to improve the sorption properties of composite sorbents.
  6. To show the correlation between the structure, distribution of cations and the sorption properties of cation-substituted spinels with different morphologies and particle sizes.
  7. On the basis of a new antistructural model to propose the mechanisms for the nanosized materials synthesis, to predict their properties and to track the influence of non-stoichiometry on the nature of the defects of the crystal structure.

Expected results:

  1. The preparation of composite sorbents on the basis of anatase in powder and granular forms will expand the possibilities of their application in sorption filters as well as in the latest environmental technologies.
  2. Development of theoretical, experimental and technological bases for creation of new magnetic materials with predictable structure and adsorptive

Contact person and project manager in Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University:
Prof. Ivan Mironyuk, Head of the Department of Chemistry,
e-mail: myrif555@gmail.com