Pourya Zarshenas1, Meysam Sadeghi2* and Mohammad Mahmoudi Alemi3

The aim of present research is to evaluate the decontamination of nerve agent sarin simulant dimethyl methyl phosphonate (DMMP) in water media using the CuO/ZnFe2O4/NaA zeolite as a novel ternary nanocomposite adsorbent. In this regard, the CuO and ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles were successfully synthesized within the NaA zeolite applying the ultrasound-assisted hydrothermal route and characterized via XRD, FESEM, FTIR, EDAX, VSM and BET analyses. Then, the CuO/ZnFe2O4/NaA nanocomposite activity was investigated for the decontamination of DMMP molecule and monitored by a GC-FID and GC-MS analyses. Plus, the impacts of several parameters, including contact time, adsorbent dose and adsorbent type on the decontamination of DMMP were studied. The gained data from GC-FID analysis confirmed the maximum decontamination more than 98.4% for DMMP. The parameters including: adsorbent amount of 50 mg and contact time of 40 min were achieved as the optimized values for the decontamination reaction. In addition, the non-toxic methyl phosphoric acid (MPA) as the DMMP degradation product in the presence of CuO/ZnFe2O4/NaA adsorbent was characterized.

Keywords: CuO/ZnFe2O4/NaA, zeolite, nerve agent sarin simulant, decontamination, dimethyl methyl phosphonate (DMMP), methyl phosphoric acid (MPA).

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