Evaluation of new surfactant expanded zirconium and titanium phosphates for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons extraction from waters M.V. Jim enez a , M. Algarra b , J.J. Jim enez a, * , M. Lamotte c a Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Crystallography and Mineralogy, Faculty of Sciences University of M alaga, Campus de Teatinos s/n 29071, M alaga, Spain b CIQ, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 687, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal c Laboratoire de Physico-Toxico-Chimie, UMR CNRS 5472, Universit e de Bordeaux I, 351 Cours de la Lib eration, F33405 Talence, France Received 12 March 2004 Abstract Anewlysynthesizedfamilyofmaterialspreparedwithsurfactantasorganictemplateweretestedfortheextractionof polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from water, using pyrene (Pyr) and benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) as PAHs repre- sentatives.Particularattentionwaspaidtotheevaluationoftherecoveryfactorswithdichloromethaneaseluentinorder to estimate their potential as adsorbing solid phases for PAH remediation or analysis. Eleven lamellar MCM-50 type materials incorporating n-alkyl- (n ¼ 12, 16, 18) trimethylammonium bromide molecules with different concentrations and chain lengths and two hexagonal MCM-41 type materials incorporating octadecyl-trimethyl ammonium bromide were tested. Best results were obtained by preparing lamellar MCM-50 zirconium and titanium phosphates in the presence of n-dodecyl-trimethylammonium at a relative molar concentration (surfactant/phosphate) of 1. Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Solid sorbent; Zirconium; Titanium; Phosphate; Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; Surfactant template 1. Introduction Public interest in environmental quality, and partic- ularly in the problem of soil and groundwater conta- mination, has increased dramatically in the European Union over the recent years (Boenke et al., 2002). Actually, in reason of their high toxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic potential, it is admitted that the emission of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from human activities endangers the quality of environment (IARC, 1983). The researches actually conducted for the remedia- tion of PAH contaminated soils and waters are dealing with the development of a great variety of techniques. One of these is the so called surfactant flushing (EPA, 1995; Ming et al., 2000; Grasso et al., 2001) which is used for cleaning up PAHs contaminated groundwater. This technique has been employed by the petroleum industry to enhance oil recovery (Ling et al., 1987). Others include in situ bioremediation (EPA, 1992; Gu- erin, 2002). Commercial humic acid which has also been successfully used for the recovery of diesel fuel in a model aquifer (Van Stempvoort et al., 2002) offers * Corresponding author. Tel.: +34-952-132-021; fax: +34- 952-132-000. E-mail address: jjimenez@uma.es (J.J. Jim enez). 0045-6535/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2004.06.009 Chemosphere 57 (2004) 179–186 www.elsevier.com/locate/chemosphere