Adsorption of bisphenol A and 17α-ethinyl estradiol from seawater, brackish water, and landfill leachate by single walled carbon nanotubes

Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) have recently emerged as a major issue that threatens to compromise drinking water quality all over the world. The objective of this study is to investigate the adsorption of bisphenol A (BPA) and 17α-ethinyl estradiol (EE2) in seawater, brackish water, and landfill leachate by single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). Various measurements have also been conducted to identify the key physico-chemical properties of SWCNTs and the behavior of the SWCNTs under the water chemistry conditions of the synthetic solutions. Various techniques include: Raman Spectroscopy, Dynamic Light Scattering, Transmission Electron Microscopy, and Zeta Potential measurement. Bench-scale experiments were performed to analyze the adsorption of BPA and EE2 by SWCNTs from synthetic water samples with high ionic strength, hydrophobic dissolved organic carbon, and varying concentrations of Ca²⁺. Hydrophobic interactions between the EDCs and the SWCNTs are believed to be the dominant mechanism of adsorption in these preliminary experiments.