Vegetable oil based removal of harmful metals from water

Authors: Doll, Kenneth - Ken; Dunn, Robert; Ascherl, Kim; Bantchev, Grigor

Submitted to: Inform
Publication Type: Trade Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/30/2018
Publication Date: 2/1/2019
Citation: Doll, K.M., Dunn, R.O., Ascherl, K.L., Bantchev, G.B. 2019. Vegetable oil-based removal of harmful metals from water. Inform. 30(2):14-18.

Interpretive Summary: The availability of water and its purity is an extremely important topic in the world today. Modern society has produced sources of water contamination containing toxic elements such as arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium and selenium which stem from the mining of metals and coal, and other sources such as manufacturing. Recently, our lab has developed and published several works on a new agriculturally based method to help deal with this problem. Vegetable oils can be chemically modified to include groups which will remove heavy metals from water and trap them in an oil layer which can be disposed of safely. This current submission is a short review on the technology, written in a condensed yet readable format.

Technical Abstract: This trade journal article details and summarizes ARS research, which utilizes materials that possess specific interactions with metal ions and allows them to be easily separated from water. The basic 4 highlights are: 1. The thiolene reaction is an atom efficient and convenient way to produce thioether-functionalized vegetable oils. 2. Thioether-functionalized vegetable oils can take metal ions out of aqueous solutions. 3. Different vegetable oils can be used to create different sulfur environments in these water remediation agents. 4. The binding of mercury ions to thioether-functionalized corn oil is stronger than the binding of silver ions to the same oil. In summary, vegetable oils are an ideal starting point for such a material which is needed for water purification applications.