Nanoscale zero-valent iron supported on biochar for the highly efficient removal of nitrobenzene

Highlights

• Biochar supported nanoscale zero-valent iron composite (nZVI/BC) was synthesized.

• nZVI/BC quickly and efficiently removed nitrobenzene (NB) in solution.

• NB removal by nZVI/BC involves simultaneous adsorption and reduction mechanism.

• nZVI/BC exhibited better catalytic activity, stability and durability than nZVI.

Abstract

The application of nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) in the remediation of contaminated groundwater or wastewater is limited due to its lack of stability, easy aggregation and iron leaching. To address this issue, nZVI was distributed on oak sawdust-derived biochar (BC) to obtain the nZVI/BC composite for the highly efficient reduction of nitrobenzene (NB). nZVI, BC and nZVI/BC were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). For nZVI/BC, nZVI particles were uniformly dispersed on BC. nZVI/BC exhibited higher removal efficiency for NB than the simple summation of bare nZVI and BC. The removal mechanism was investigated through the analyses of UV-Visible spectra, mass balance and XPS. NB was quickly adsorbed on the surface of nZVI/BC, and then gradually reduced to aniline (AN), accompanied by the oxidation of nZVI to magnetite. The effects of several reaction parameters, e.g., NB concentration, reaction pH and nZVI/BC aging time, on the removal of NB were also studied. In addition to high reactivity, the loading of nZVI on biochar significantly alleviated Fe leaching and enhanced the durability of nZVI.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Biochar / Nanoscale zero-valent iron / Nitrobenzene / Reduction / Adsorption / Synergistic effec

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (No. SJCX17_0120), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41471267 and 41601527), Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (Nos. 2014A030313704 and 2014A030310141), and Technology Program of Guangzhou, China (Grant No. 201607010236).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-019-1142-3 and is accessible for authorized users.

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