Removal of insensitive munitions compounds from water solutions via chitin- and chitosan-based materials

• Main Author: Gurtowski, Luke Alexander
• Other Authors: Veera Gnaneswar Gude
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: MSSTATE 2017
• Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Online Access: http://sun.library.msstate.edu/ETD-db/theses/available/etd-10242017-164601/

<p>This thesis features evaluations involving chitin- and chitosan-based materials as treatment technologies for solutions contaminated with insensitive munitions (IMs) compounds. Specifically, amine-functionalized chitin adsorbents and chitosan-graphene oxide membranes are evaluated in this study commercially available biopolymer adsorbents and membranes. Insensitive munitions evaluated include nitrotriazolone (NTO), nitroguanidine (NQ), and 2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN); 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) was also studied as a traditional munition for comparison. Amine-functionalized chitin is an effective adsorbent for NTO, DNAN, and TNT; chitin and the intermediate material, p-tosyl-functionalized chitin, were ineffective at removing any IM or tradition munition compounds evaluated. Cellulose triacetate was the only commercially available biopolymer adsorbent effective at removing munitions compounds from solution; only DNAN and TNT were removed. Chitosan-graphene oxide membranes effectively removed all IM and traditional munitions analyzed, but removal performance degraded with time. Overall, this research shows that the materials studied are effective at removing IM and traditional munitions from solution.</p>