Fate and Treatability of Engineered Nanoparticles in Urban Stormwater

Despite the tremendous benefits of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs), their inevitable release into the environment may be detrimental and hence cause for concern of these emerging contaminants. In this thesis research, the fate and transport of nano-silver (n-Ag) and nano-titanium dioxide in source specific stormwater is explored, and the influence of n-Ag on the treatability of co-pollutants is examined. Through the analysis of particle size distribution, it was noticed that metallic ENPs tend to aggregate initially, while extended turbulence in the system leads to disaggregation. Stormwater samples with added ENPs exhibited larger particles than those in stormwater without added ENPs. The effects of n-Ag were explored through adsorption batch tests of different media with aqueous solution of various copper and zinc concentrations and analyzed through atomic absorption spectrophotometry. There appeared to be a slight increase in both metal removal rates when n-Ag was present, although the difference was not statistically significant.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Wright, Laura

Contributors dc:contributor

• Bathi, Jejal Reddy
• Yang, Sungwoo; Wu, Weidong
• College of Engineering and Computer Science

• Metal nanoparticles--Environmental aspects
• Runoff--Purification--Heavy metals removal
• Urban runoff--Management

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/865

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-2046