Separation of Arsenic Species (As(III) and As(v)) Using Ion Exchange Method

With growing news about contaminated drinking water there is urgent need for people to be aware of different types of contaminants. One contaminant in particular, arsenic (As), is among the primary drinking water pollutants in the United States and abroad. As is one of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 10 chemicals of major public health concern. In the US, As is widely observed in groundwater. For example, in Wisconsin’s Fox River Valley, \u3e18% of private water-supply wells have detected As contamination. As can be commonly present in drinking water sources in two oxidation states, As (III) and As(V). As(III) is more toxic and mobile than As(V), and is more challenging to be removed via various water treatment processes, even using Reverse Osmosis. However, the current drinking water standard only regulates total As (i.e., sum of As(III) and As(V)), and does not distinguish As(III) from As(V). The objective of this project is to advance the methods for selective determination of As(III) and As(V) in drinking water, respectively. We examine a set of methods, their detection limits, best working ranges, and the interference with coexisting ions in natural water matrices