Water-soluble chitosan promotes remediation of Pb-contaminated soil by Hylotelephium spectabile

Highlights

● WSC improves physicochemical properties of soil for plant growth.

● Water-soluble and acid-extractable Pb in soil increase with WSC dose.

● Amino and hydroxyl groups in WSC play important roles in mobilizing Pb in soil.

● WSC improves phytoremediation capacity of Pb-contaminated soil by H. spectabile .

Abstract

Water-soluble chitosan (WSC) has been studied for its ability to mobilize soil Pb and promote the phytoremediation by Hylotelephium spectabile in Pb-contaminated fields. We aimed to clarify the internal mechanism by which WSC impacts phytoremediation by examining plant growth and Pb accumulation performance of H. spectabile as well as the Pb form, functional groups, and mineral phases of Pb-contaminated soil. WSC effectively decreased soil pH and activated Pb migration in rhizosphere soils, with a considerable increase in water-soluble and acid-extractable Pb by 29%–102% and 9%–65%, respectively, and a clear decreasing trend in reducible and oxidizable Pb. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy revealed a significant increase in amino and hydroxyl groups in the soil generated by WSC. The coordination of Pb with amino and hydroxyl groups may play an important role in the formation of Pb complexes and activation of Pb in soil. In field trials, the application of WSC significantly increased Pb accumulation in H. spectabile by 125.44%, reaching 92 g/hm². Moreover, the organic matter and nitrogen in the soils were increased by WSC, which improved the growth conditions of H. spectabile. No obvious growth inhibition was observed in either the pot or field trials. Therefore, WSC is a promising chelating agent for mobilizing Pb in soil. Additionally, WSC can be potentially used to boost H. spectabil-mediated phytoremediation of Pb-contaminated farmland.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Phytoremediation / Pb-contaminated soil / Water-soluble chitosan / Hylotelephium spectabile / Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

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Acknowledgements

The research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 42277237, 22206149, and 41907125), the Applied Basic Research Project of Shanxi Province (China) (No. 20210302124220) and the Horizontal Scientific Research Funds of Taiyuan University of Technology (Nos. RH2200002532 and RH2300002821).

Conflict of Interests

Tongbin Chen is a editorial board member of Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-024-1847-9 and is accessible for authorized users.

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