Removal of heavy metal from wastewater #26

Abstract

The development of environmental remediation technologies targets to minimize the toxic effects of pollutants. Among developing remediation technologies, sonochemistry is an emerging technology for the removal of pollutants in aqueous environment. Primary reaction generated during acoustic cavitation is the homolytic cleavage of water molecules into atomic hydrogen (H) and hydroxyl (OH) radicals. Hydroxyl radicals unselectively oxidize target pollutant molecules. This chapter deals with technical feasibility of sonochemical process for the removal of heavy metal pollutants from aqueous environment. The removal of heavy metal pollutants using adsorption materials in the presence of ultrasonic irradiation shows better efficiency compared to reactions in the absence of ultrasonic irradiation. It is concluded that ultrasonic technology is a simple and possibly cost-effective alternative for the oxidation of heavy metals with and without assistance of external catalysts.