Date Available

11-7-2012

Year of Publication

2012

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Document Type

Master's Thesis

College

Engineering

Department/School/Program

Chemical Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. Dibakar Bhattacharyya

Abstract

Detoxification of chlorinated organic compound is an important and urgent issue in water remediation nowadays. Trichloroethylene (TCE), as a model compound in this study, has been proved to be degraded effectively by bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) in solution phase. In this study, Fe/Pd bimetallic NPs were synthesized in poly (acrylic acid) (PAA) functionalized polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) microfiltration membranes. TCE dechlorination with these bimetallic NPs was conducted under different pH values and different metal loadings to study the role of corrosion on reaction rates.

One-dimensional mathematical model with pseudo first-order reaction kinetic was introduced to discuss the TCE dechlorination profile in membrane system. Reduction reaction in pores is affected by several parameters including NP loading and size, TCE diffusivity, void volume fraction and surface-area-based reaction rates. This model result indicated that modification is needed to correct the reaction rate obtained from bulk solution in order to represent the actual efficiency of NPs on reduction reaction. In addition, TCE dechlorination mainly occurred near NPs’ surface. Second part of model indicated that reduction mechanism with TCE adsorption-desorption behavior could be used to discuss dechlorination with a high TCE concentration.

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