ABSTRACT
Arsenic is viewed as being synonymous with toxicity. Dangerous arsenic concentrations in natural waters are now a worldwide problem particularly in the countries like Bangladesh, India, the United States, Canada, etc. and is often referred to as a twenty-first century calamity. In order to remove arsenic from polluted water to a safe level, adsorption based on nanosized metal oxide adsorbents is found to be very promising, as recent studies have reported that many metal oxide adsorbents could exhibit414 very favorable sorption to arsenic, resulting in excellent removal of toxic metals to meet increasingly strict regulations. However, the use of metal oxide adsorbents alone is prone to agglomeration due to van der Waals forces or other interactions, causing their high capacity and selectivity of heavy metal to decrease or even be lost. Furthermore, the small size of metal oxides has made them unable to be used in fixed beds or any other flow-through systems. In view of this, integrating porous host media with metal oxide adsorbents has become a hot topic in the development of applicable and reliable treatment technology. Among the many porous supports ever investigated, the use of polymeric microporous membrane as host media for nanoparticles is reported to be advantageous and unique in arsenic removal. This chapter is intended to highlight the significant advantages of using novel mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) in the adsorptive removal of arsenic in comparison to other treatment methods and to provide in-depth discussion on the important factors influencing the performance of MMMs during the treatment process as well as the regeneration process of the membrane.
