Ngan Anh Nguyen
Chemical engineering
Hometown: Phan Thiet City, Binh Thuan Province, Vietnam
Graduation date: Fall 2021
FURI | Spring 2021
Investigation on the Adsorption of Selenium Oxo-Anions on Hematite and Alumina Surfaces
Selenium oxo-anions are toxic substances present in drinking water, these can be removed by using Hematite and Alumina as the adsorbent materials. Density Functional Theory is used to understand the factors affecting the adsorption. Alumina and Hematite have the same crystal structure, allowing to probe composition-dependent effects. The results indicate that outer-sphere adsorption is stronger than inner-sphere adsorption for both adsorbents. However, Hematite is selective to Selenite while Alumina is selective to Selenate. Also, semi-protonated systems have higher adsorption energies for Hematite while deprotonated systems have higher adsorption energies for Alumina. These factors are important in designing selective models for effective adsorption.
Mentor: Christopher Muhich