(193f) Adsorption of Pfas By Zeolites

PFAS are fluorochemicals that have been produced since before the 1940’s and have a wide range of uses in consumer and industrial products. While useful, these chemicals have been identified as “forever chemicals”, and are ubiquitous almost everywhere. The persistence of PFAS in the environment has called for the monitoring and remediation of drinking water in the US as well as the entire world. While traditional sorbent materials such as activated carbon and ion exchange resins are already being used, they lack the specificity that is needed to work efficiently in large bodies of real polluted water. Zeolites have been identified as potential sorbent materials to selectively remove and concentrate PFAS in the environment. Zeolites have a wide range of pore openings, as well tunable properties to make them ideal for removing pollutants from the environment. Currently there is very little research investigating zeolites for PFAS sorption. In this research, a number of high silica zeolites were investigated for their ability to adsorb PFAS out of water samples. Due to the widespread contamination of low level PFAS everywhere, specific analytical techniques and material considerations had to be used to get consistent and accurate measurements at the ppt level.