Decontamination of 2-chloro ethyl ethyl sulphide and dimethyl methyl phosphonate from aqueous solutions using manganese oxide nanostructures

Abstract

Current study investigates the efficiency of reactive adsorbent composed of MnO2 nanoparticles and nanorods for the detoxification of 2-chloro ethyl ethyl sulphide (CEES) and dimethyl methyl phosphonate (DMMP), well-known simulants of sulphur mustard and sarin, respectively. The MnO2 nanoparticles and nanorods were synthesised using novel reactive magnetron sputtering technique and then characterised by powder XRD, Raman spectroscopy, FE-SEM, TEM, BET, FT-IR and Thermogravimetry (TG) analysis. Powder XRD and Raman results confirm the formation of pure tetragonal phase of MnO2 nanostructure material. The FE-SEM and TEM analysis exhibited the formation of aggregate MnO2 nanoparticles and nanorods. The surface area of the synthesised aggregate MnO2 nanoparticles and nanorods (164.28m2/g) was found to be enhanced significantly in comparison with what was reported in the literature. Decontamination reactions of synthesised nanostructure material were examined by GC equipped with FID and the products obtained after reaction were analysed by GC–MS and FT-IR techniques. It was observed that the currently synthesised MnO2 nanoparticles and nanorods exhibit much better decontamination results towards CEES as well as DMMP in comparison to or as per existing solid decontaminants. The reactions exhibited pseudo first order kinetic behaviour with rate constant and half life value 0.267h−1 and 2.58h for CEES and 0.068h−1 and 10.10h for DMMP, respectively. The data exhibits the formation of non-toxic hydrolysis products in the detoxification of CEES as well as DMMP.