Removal of nitrate from water by conducting polyaniline via electrically switching ion exchange method in a dual cell reactor: Optimizing and modeling

The paper investigates the performance and modeling of the PANI-Cl-, PANI-ClO4- and PANI-SO42- on removal of nitrate in a dual cell reactor and the electrically switching ion exchange (ESIX) approach has been employed as a safety measure. In this experiment, the conducting polyaniline is synthesized via an electrochemical method on the platinum electrode in three various acidic mediums and the Ion exchange technique is processed by controlling the potentiostat condition. The independent variables in the response surface methodology (RSM) using central composite design (CCD) include pH and concentration (mg/L) of the solution. A better result in removal of nitrate was obtained for PANI-SO42-, followed by removal of 87% nitrate ions. It has been observed that after three times of regeneration and reusing of synthesized polymer, the removal of nitrate is still higher than 60%. Furthermore, the Nitrate ions have been removed without any toxic by-product and optimal removal of nitrate ions (87%) has been predicted at a controlled potential of 1.5 V, pH: 6 and concentration: 88 mg/L for PANI-SO42-. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.