title: Efficient artificial mineralization route to decontaminate Arsenic(III) polluted water - the Tooeleite Way.
abstract: Increasing exposure to arsenic (As) contaminated ground water is a great threat to humanity. Suitable technology for As immobilization and removal from water, especially for As(III) than As(V), is not available yet. However, it is known that As(III) is more toxic than As(V) and most groundwater aquifers, particularly the Gangetic basin in India, is alarmingly contaminated with it. In search of a viable solution here, we took a cue from the natural mineralization of Tooeleite, a mineral containing Fe(III) and As(III)ions, grown under acidic condition, in presence of SO4(2-) ions. Complying to this natural process, we could grow and separate Tooeleite-like templates from Fe(III) and As(III) containing water at overall circumneutral pH and in absence of SO4(2-) ions by using highly polar Zn-only ends of wurtzite ZnS nanorods as insoluble nano-acidic-surfaces. The central idea here is to exploit these insoluble nano-acidic-surfaces (called as INAS in the manuscript) as nucleation centres for Tooeleite growth while keeping the overall pH of the aqueous media neutral. Therefore, we propose a novel method of artificial mineralization of As(III) by mimicking a natural process at nanoscale.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Jadavpur, Kolkata 700032, India.
authors.forename: Arindam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Malakar
authors.affiliation: Centre for Advanced Materials, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Jadavpur, Kolkata 700032, India.
authors.forename: Bidisa
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Das
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Jadavpur, Kolkata 700032, India.
authors.forename: Samirul
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze, Universitá Roma Tre, Via della Vasca Navale, 84 I-00146 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meneghini
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, University of Cagliari, 09127 Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: De Giudici
authors.affiliation: Universita di Milano Dip. di, Scienzedella Terra Ardito Desio, Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Merlini
authors.affiliation: International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Av. Mestre José Veiga s/n, 4715-330 Braga, Portugal.
authors.forename: Yury V
authors.initials: YV
authors.lastname: Kolen'ko
authors.affiliation: Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., Strada Statale 14, km 163.5, 34149 Basovizza, Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iadecola
authors.affiliation: Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., Strada Statale 14, km 163.5, 34149 Basovizza, Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuliana
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Aquilanti
authors.affiliation: Centre for Advanced Materials, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Jadavpur, Kolkata 700032, India.
authors.forename: Somobrata
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Acharya
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Jadavpur, Kolkata 700032, India.|Centre for Advanced Materials, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Jadavpur, Kolkata 700032, India.
authors.forename: Sugata
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ray