Minjung Jeon

Date of Award

Spring 2021

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

First Advisor

Yeomin Yoon

Abstract

Environmental pollution has intensified and accelerated due to a steady increase in the number of industries, and finding methods to remove hazardous contaminants, which can be typically divided into inorganic and organic compounds, have become inevitable. One of the widely used water treatment technologies is adsorption and various kinds of adsorbents for the removal of inorganic and organic contaminants from water have been discovered. Recently, MXene, as an emerging nanomaterial, has gained rapid attention owing to its unique characteristics and various applicability. Particularly, in the area of adsorptive application, MXene and MXene-based adsorbents have shown great potential in a large number of studies. In this regard, a comprehensive understanding of the adsorptive behavior of MXene-based nanomaterials is necessary in order to explain how they remove inorganic and organic contaminants in water. Additionally, to investigate the synergism of ultrasonication and MXene, sonodegradation of selected pharmaceuticals, amitriptyline and ibuprofen, with MXene was carried out in water source. To investigate practicality of the degradation process, the experiments were conducted in various water quality conditions, including pH, temperature, natural organic matter (NOM), and ionic strength. And, to confirm the importance of hydroxyl radicals, the effect of hydroxyl radical promoter (H2O2) and scavenger (t-BuOH) was also studied. In addition, the synergetic indices were calculated with the rate constants of ultrasonication (US) only, MXene only, and a US/MXene combined system. Overall, utilization of MXene by means of ultrasonication could enhance the removal performance of PhACs in water.

Rights

© 2021, Minjung Jeon

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