Abstract
Ph.D. (Chemistry)
Environmental pollution is one of the major challenges worldwide. This is because of the
increase in contamination of water, soil and air by trace metals and organic based
contaminants arising from different activities. These activities include mining operations,
agricultural runoffs and paint industries, among others. The prevalence of inorganic and
organic pollutants in the environment calls for urgent intervention to try and mitigate the
challenges that are due to pollutants that cause water to be scarce. The existence of
pollutants in the environmental matrices encourages the development of methods that are
effective and efficient in the extraction, separation and preconcentration of trace metals
and pharmaceutical drugs.
Therefore, the main aim of this study was to prepare the pollution-cleaning and multipurpose
adsorbents from waste material. The pollutants investigated in this study include
toxic trace elements and refractory metals such as arsenic (As), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd),
thallium (Tl), antimony (Sb) and tellurium (Te), among others. In addition, antibiotics such
as sulfamethoxazole (SMX), ciprofloxacin (CIPRO), danofloxacin (DANO) and
enrofloxacin (ENRO) were also investigated. Activated carbon derived from waste tyres
was used as adsorbent or as a main component in composite and nanofibers materials. The
idea behind the use of the waste tyre was inspired by the fact that research on reuse and
recycling of waste tyres are an actual and challenging subject. On the other hand, the
production of activated carbon from waste tyres and its use as the pollution-cleaning
adsorbents was considered a doubly effective solution for environmental pollution.
In this thesis, two comprehensive reviews and various sample preparation methods for
removal, extraction and preconcentration of selected trace metals and antibiotics prior to
spectrophotometric, spectrometric and chromatographic detection. The developed sample
preparation methods were applied to environmental samples. These methodologies include
solid phase extraction (SPE), dispersive solid phase extraction (DSPE), ultrasound assisted
dispersive solid phase extraction (UA-DSPE), microwave assisted solid phase extraction
(MASPE) and ultrasound assisted solid phase microextraction (UA-DSPME.
The summary of the work presented are listed below:
1. A comprehensive review detailing the application of myriad carbonaceous materials for
the removal of toxic trace elements in the environment is presented. The adsorptive
removal of heavy metals such Tl, Te, Hg, Cd and Pb using carbon based adsorbents such...