Photocatalytic polymeric materials for remediation of cyanide ions from simulated and real wastewater samples

Abstract: The mining and metallurgical activities generate large amounts of waste into the environment. As a result, these wastes constitute one of the greatest environmental challenges in South Africa today. During gold recovery process, cyanide is used in large volumes to extract gold from the ore forming a cyanido complexes. Cyanide is subsequently recovered for reuse through adsorption. However, low concentrations of cyanide are degraded to lesser harmful entities. Many treatment methods have been used over the years in the treatment of cyanide-containing wastewater, but these procedures were found not satisfactory. The current technologies that are used do not remove CN- completely, while others can remove CN- but with the formation of very toxic products which causes additional pollution in the environment. In recent times, our research has embarked on the development of polymer nanocomposites supported on activated carbon (AC) and clay for selective adsorption of cyanide ions. The materials were also coupled to photo-catalytic nanoparticles (TiO2) for photooxidation of CN-. The polymer used in these studies was polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) which was further quaternized to introduce a positive charge on the nitrogen atom of the pyrrolidone ring to increase their selectivity...M.Sc. (Chemistry