Pivotal roles of nanoscale zerovalent iron supported on metal-organic framework material in cadmium (II) migration and transformation in soil

Abstract

Cadmium (Cd) contamination in soils is of great concern, and therefore the development of effective remediation technologies for cadmium contamination is urgent. In our study, nano zero-valent iron (NZVI) supported by metal-organic framework (MOF) materials (MOF-NZVI) were prepared using NaBH₄ and FeCl₃ to try to solve the soil Cd remediation problem. Herein, the effects and the mechanism of MOF-NZVI for the immobilization of Cd in contaminated soil was investigated. The results showed that MOF-NZVI was capable of converting Cd in soil from weak acid extractable and reducible fractions to oxidizable and residual states, thus effectively reducing the toxicity of Cd in soil. FTIR and XRD analysis confirmed that the dominant reaction mechanism between MOF-NVZI and Cd is adsorption with complexation, and the stabilization of Cd is achieved by the formation of compounds such as FeOCdOH.

Keywords:

• Nanoscale zerovalent iron
• metal-organic framework
• cadmium
• remediation

Acknowledgments

The authors want to thank Yuntao Shang for their support with analyses. A portion of this work was performed on the Steady High Magnetic Field Facilities, High Magnetic Field Laboratory, CAS.

Author contributions

The article was written through the contributions of all authors. All authors have approved the final version of the manuscript.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in figshare at http://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19316147.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Youth Scientific Research Talent Support Program of Tianjin Normal University (135302RC1706), Young and Middle-aged Backbone Innovative Talents Training Project Foundation of Tianjin (135305JF76), the Second Level Candidates for the “131 Talent Plan” in Tianjin (135305QR06), National Natural Science Foundation of China (21307090) and Tianjin Municipal Natural Science Foundation of China (18JCYBJC96600, 14JCZDJC41000).