Abstract

The presence of emerging contaminants in the source water has become a critical issue to ensure the security of drinking water. In our study, a comprehensive investigation was carried out on the levels of three emerging contaminants (pesticides, antibiotics, and perfluorinated compounds) present in the source water from four water plants. Zero-valent iron modified cation exchange resin (ZVI-CER) and micron-sized magnetic cation exchange resin (m-MCER) were fabricated by in-situ and copolymerization methods and their removal performances for atrazine (ATZ), tetracycline (TC) and erythromycin (ETM) in water were also evaluated. The influencing parameters (pH, co-existing cations, and humic acid) of m-MCER resin were investigated in batch experiments. The removal rates of ATZ, TC, and ETM could be controlled within the ranges of 84.1–91.6 %, 65.4–91.1 %, and 82.2–99.5 % at different pH levels. Both ATZ and ETM exhibited higher resistance to different pH levels, coexisting ions (Na+, Ca2+) and humic acid during the removal process, suggesting prospective application potential for hardness removal. Whereas, TC was notably affected by the presence of NaCl, resulting in a decrease in the removal rate from 88.9 % to 61.1 %. Furthermore, the regeneration methods and cycles of the resin were investigated and the selectivity of the resin towards both emerging contaminants and coexisting cations was also analyzed. Finally, the selective adsorption mechanism of m-MCER resin for ATZ, TC, and ETM was established by analyzing various pathways, including ion exchange, hydrogen bonding and π-π stacking interactions.