Abstract
In South Africa, the unavailability of clean drinking water is a life-threatening
problem, especially in the rural areas. Millions of people living in rural areas rely on
water directly from the source (surface and groundwater) for drinking, cooking and
other domestic purposes without any prior treatment. These sources of water are
known to be affected by contaminants from untreated wastewater, industrial
effluent, agricultural runoffs and domestic waste. The exposure of humans to
these polluted water bodies results in infection and waterborne diseases which
sometimes result in death. This has a direct consequence to the productivity of the
people living in these communities and has cost implications to the government.
This study was aimed at determining the potential pollutants present in drinking
water sources in Lochiel, a small community in the Mpumalanga province, eastern
part of South Africa, and to develop efficient and cost effective materials (beads
and membranes) that could be used in the rural communities to provide safe and
clean water for consumption.
The application of adsorption materials (e.g. in the form of beads) and filtration
materials (e.g. membranes) has attracted great interest in water purification. This
is because they have several advantages over the conventional methods. These
advantages include but are not limited to low capital and operations costs, low
energy requirements (especially when chemically modified) and ease of operation.
In this study chitosan (CTs) was chosen to prepare novel and environmentally
benign nanocomposite materials either in the form of beads or flat sheet using
greener solvents. In an attempt to prepare biopolymer-ceramic nanofiltration
composite membranes, small amounts of multiwalled carbon nanotubes
(MWCNTs) (5 wt%) and alumina (Al) (20 wt%) were added to CTs in pH controlled
aqueous media near room temperature. The resulting nanocomposite was found
to readily form insoluble beads...
M.Sc. (Chemistry)