Effect of Tube Length on Transport of Multi-Wall Nanotubes (MWNTs) in a Water-Saturated Quartz Sand
Abstract
With expanding commercial interests from various application areas, the production of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in large scale is expected to grow rapidly. The inevitable release of CNTs into the environment and identification of the cytotoxicity of dispersed CNTs prompt the necessity of understanding their transport behavior in porous media. In this study, one-dimensional column experiments were conducted to assess the transport and retention of multi-wall nanotubes (MWNTs) in water-saturated 40-50 mesh Ottawa sand as a function of of tube length. In order to avoid damages to nanotube length by ultrasonication or superacids (e.g., HNO3), a chemical modification method involving a mild acid treatment was adopted to prepare suspensions of MWNTs with three different manufacture-reported (MR) lengths (0.5-2, 10-20, and 50 μm). For each experiment, a pulse (e.g., 5 pore volumes) of MWNT suspension was introduced into the column, followed by 3 pore volumes of MWNT-free solution elution. Measured concentrations of MWNTs in effluent and dissected solid samples were used to construct effluent breakthrough curves and retention profiles, respectively. For an input concentration of ca. 90 mg/L, MWNTs breakthrough concentrations decreased with the increasing MR length. Even with an MR length of 50 μm, MWNTs were readily transported through the packed bed, where ca. 80% of total injected nanotubes passed through the column. While the retention of MWNTs increased with MR length, concentrations of retained nanotubes decreased hyper-exponentially with distance from the column inlet. Further analysis of these findings suggests that clean-bed filtration theory alone is not sufficient to describe MWNT transport and retention behavior in a water-saturated quartz sand.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009AGUFM.H41I..04W
- Keywords:
-
- 1832 HYDROLOGY / Groundwater transport