Patent ID: 7470369
Filing Date: 2008-12-30
Classification: B01D,B01J,C02F,C08L

Abstract:
1. A method of filtering contaminated water, comprising: providing a quantity of water containing a quantity of a contaminant; contacting the quantity of water with an amount of a water soluble dendritic macromolecules sufficient to bind at least a portion of the contaminant to produce a quantity of contaminant-bound dendritic macromolecules; filtering the quantity of contaminant-bound dendritic macromolecules from the quantity of water, comprising the step of passing the water through a first filtration membrane having pores or channels smaller than the contaminant-bound dendritic macromolecules but larger than the contaminant and larger than a water molecule, wherein the contaminant-bound dendritic macromolecules are retained on the up-stream side of the first filtration membrane, whereby a quantity of filtered water is produced; subjecting the contaminant-bound dendritic macromolecules to a recycling reaction to separate at least a portion of the contaminants from at least a portion of the contaminant-bound dendritic macromolecules to produce a quantity of contaminants and a quantity of unbound dendritic macromolecules, wherein the recycling reaction comprises placing the contaminant-bound dendritic macromolecule in an environment in which the dendritic macromolecule chemically or physically releases the bound contaminant, to produce a mixture of dissociated dendritic macromolecules and dissociated contaminant; and filtering the quantity of dendritic macromolecules from the quantity of dissociated contaminant, comprising the step of passing the mixture of dissociated dendritic macromolecules and dissociated contaminant through a second filtration membrane having pores or channels smaller than the dissociated dendritic macromolecules but larger than the dissociated contaminant, wherein the dissociated dendritic macromolecules are retained on the up-stream side of the second filtration membrane; wherein the contaminant is selected from the group consisting of Co(II), Ag(I), Fe(III), Ni(II), ClO wherein the dendritic macromolecule comprises: