Feasibility of using drinking water treatment residuals as a novel chlorpyrifos adsorbent

Recent efforts have increasingly focused on the development of low-cost adsorbents for pesticide retention. In this work, the novel reuse of drinking water treatment residuals (WTRs), a nonhazardous ubiquitous byproduct, as an adsorbent for chlorpyrifos was investigated. Results showed that the kinetics and isothermal processes of chlorpyrifos sorption to WTRs were better described by a pseudo-second-order model and by the Freundlich equation, respectively. Moreover, compared with paddy soil and other documented absorbents, the WTRs exhibited a greater affinity for chlorpyrifos (log Koc = 4.76-4.90) and a higher chlorpyrifos sorption capacity (KF = 5967 mg(1-n)·L·kg(-1)) owing to the character and high content of organic matter. Further investigation demonstrated that the pH had a slight but statistically insignificant effect on chlorpyrifos sorption to WTRs; solution ionic strength and the presence of low molecular weight organic acids both resulted in concentration-dependent inhibition effects. Overall, these results confirmed the feasibility of using WTRs as a novel chlorpyrifos adsorbent.