Adsorption ability of DNA/calcium alginate magnetic aerogel microspheres toward benzo(a)anthracene 

Abstract

With the increasing development of industry, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) pollution is becoming increasingly serious, posing great harm to the health of humans and other organisms. It is urgent to develop effective solutions.In this study, DNA/calcium alginate magnetic aerogel microspheres were prepared based on the gel properties of sodium alginate and the magnetism of ferric oxide, which were used to remove benzo(a)anthracene (BaA) from aqueous solution. The aerogel microspheres were irregular spherical, with concave convex surface and good water absorption. The pores were mostly mesoporous. The aerogel microspheres had good adsorption on BaA and were easy to be magnetically separated. When the initial concentration of BaA was 350 µg/L, the removal efficiency was 98.52% when incubated at 25 ℃ and pH 7.0 for 50 min. The adsorption process accorded with Langmuir model and pseudo-2nd -order kinetic model. For natural river samples containing BaA, the removal efficiency was above 98.45% when the BaA initial concentration was in the range of 50–300 µg/L.The aerogel microspheres have high adsorption capacity, and the adsorption of BaA was simple and time-consuming, which have great potential application value in water purification.