ABSTRACT
Chitin and especially its deacetylated derivative, chitosan, have found numerous applications in industrial processes and especially in wastewater treatment and in potable water purification. Standard methods for water purification used in water-softening plants remain largely ineffective to remove these persistent xenobiotics. The high affinity of organochlorine hydrocarbons to chitin and chitosan, observed in vitro in the beginning of the 1980s, has instigated new research to develop effective polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB)-contaminated stream water treatment using these natural polymers. Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is a pesticide widely used in wood treatment against fungi. With time the PCP is slowly liberated from the wood and contaminates nearby water systems. The identification of the most useful adsorbent for PCP sorption was determined by the adsorption isotherms according to the Freundlich model. A PCP adsorption mechanism on the CHT-Glu-Red chitosan derivative based on a weak dipole-dipole interaction is suggested. Moreover, the nonwoven reactive filter K8WOT is a powerful and useful PCP and PCB adsorbent.
