Differential and mechanism analysis of sulfate influence on the degradation of 1,1,2- trichloroethane by nano- and micron-size zero-valent iron

ABSTRACT

The in-situ reduction of zero-valent iron (ZVI) is an effective method for removing chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons (CAHs) from groundwater. The heterogeneity of environmental conditions is also crucial in affecting dechlorination efficiency. Until now, the effect of Sulfate (SO₄^2–) on ZVI activity has been debated, and the related mechanism research on SO₄^2– behaviour during the abiotic reduction process of chlorinated alkanes is still lacking. In this study, the impacts of SO₄^2– concentrations (0, 2, 4, 8, 80 mM) on the degradation of 1,1,2-trichloroethane (1,1,2-TCA) by micron-size ZVI (mZVI) and nano-size ZVI (nZVI) were systematically investigated. For mZVI, K_obs increased by 0.6 (2 mM), 0.5 (4 mM), 1.1 (8 mM), and 1.6 times (80 mM). For nZVI, K_obs decreased by 32% (2 mM), 39% (4 mM), 45% (8 mM), and 9% (80 mM). The results showed that SO₄^2– increased the rate of 1,1,2-TCA degradation by mZVI but weakened the reduction performance of nZVI; however, this inhibition was reduced when the concentration reached 80 mM. SO₄²⁻ controlled the degradation of 1,1,2-TCA mainly through the formation of different iron-sulfate complexes on the ZVI surface: water-soluble bidentate iron-sulfate complexes formed on the mZVI surface promoted the corrosion of the oxide layer and accelerated the reduction of 1,1,2-TCA, monodentate complexes mainly formed on the nZVI surface inhibited the reduction of 1,1,2-TCA by blocking surface sites. These results demonstrate the proof of concept to assist land managers in the field application of ZVI technology for the remediation of CAHs contaminated sites with different background concentrations of SO₄²⁻.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Zero-valent iron
• 1,1,2-trichloroethane
• sulfate
• reductive dechlorination
• surface complexes

Data availability

Data will be made available on request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41907159), National Key Research and Development Program of Chiname of China (2018YFC1801404-1) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2017M610806). We thank LetPub (www.letpub.com) for linguistic assistance and pre-submission expert review.