Simultaneous elution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals from contaminated soil by two amino acids derived from β-cyclodextrins

Two highly water-soluble amino acids, which derived from -CDs, i.e., glutamic acid- -cyclodextrin (GluCD) and ethylene-diamine- -cyclodextrin (EDCD), were synthesized and were examined for their e ect on solubilization of anthracene (ANT), complexation of cadmium (Cd2+), and elution removal of ANT and Cd2+ in soil. The results showed that GluCD and EDCD were powerful complexant for ANT and Cd2+. In the presence of 10 g/L GluCD and EDCD, the solubilization of ANT increased by 47.04 and 23.85 times compared to the control, respectively. GluCD resulted in approximately 90% complexation of Cd2+ while 70% complexation was observed for EDCD. Simultaneously, GluCD and EDCD could greatly enhance the elution removal of ANT and Cd2+ from soil. GluCD resulted in the highest elution e ciency of ANT and Cd2+.With the addition of 10 g/L GluCD, 53.5% of ANT and 85.6% of Cd2+ were eluted, respectively. The ANT had a negligible e ect on the Cd2+ removal due to di erent complexing sites of ANT and Cd2+, while Cd2+ enhanced the ANT removal under the addition of GluCD because Cd2+ neutralized the –COOH group of GluCD. Adversely, the removal of ANT was decreased with Cd2+ under the addition of EDCD, this was due to the fact that Cd2+ enhanced the polarity of EDCD molecule and inhibited the complexation between ANT and EDCD. The study suggested that GluCD could be preferred and be successfully applied to remediation of heavy metals or organic compounds in contaminated soil.

Effects of pH and particle size on kinetics of nitrobenzene reduction by zero-valent iron

Nitrobenzene has been considered as a significant groundwater contaminant due to its wide usage in explosives, insecticides, herbicides, pharmaceuticals and dyes. Nitrobenzene is of environmental concern because of its toxicity. In the presence of zero-valent iron (ZVI), reduction of the nitro group is the dominant transformation process for nitrobenzene. A series of experiments were carried out to investigate the kinetics of nitrobenzene reduction by ZVI and the effects of pH and ZVI particle size on nitrobenzene removal in groundwater. The results indicated that nitrobenzene could be reduced to aniline by ZVI; the reduction of nitrobenzene by ZVI followed a pseudo first-order kinetics; the observed nitrobenzene reduction rate constant (k_obs) was 0.0006 min^?1 and the half-life of nitrobenzene (t_1/2) was 115.5 min; the mass balance achieved 87.5% for nitrobenzene reduction by the 1 mm ZVI particle and the final removal efficiency was 80.98%. In addition, the pH and ZVI particle size were found to exhibit significant influences on the nitrobenzene reduction. The observed nitrobenzene reduction rate constant linearly decreased with increase pH and the data fitted on polynomial regression equation for the observed nitrobenzene reduction rate constant and ZVI particle size. Therefore, use of ZVI based permeable reactive barrier technology to remedy nitrobenzene contaminated groundwater was feasible.