Elimination of mutagenic contaminants from water using cellulose bearing ferrous-phthalocyanine.

Background: We previously investigated methods for separating mutagenic contaminants from aqueous solutions using cellulose-bearing covalently bound trisulfo-Cu-phthalocyanine (blue cotton and blue rayon). Mutagenic contaminants with three or more fused aromatic rings in their structures were adsorbed onto blue cotton and rayon. Since Cu-phthalocyanine is considered an unsuitable absorption ligand for byproducts of water chlorination, such as 3-chloro-4-(dichloromethyl)-5-hydroxy-2(5H)-furanone (Mutagen X or MX), we investigated the development of a new material for the elimination of MX from aqueous solvents.