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Activated Carbon-Supported Palladized Iron Nanoparticles: Applications to Contaminated Site Remediation
Citation:
Choi, H., P. Nfodzo, S. Al-Abed, S. Agarwal, AND D. Dionysiou. Activated Carbon-Supported Palladized Iron Nanoparticles: Applications to Contaminated Site Remediation. Chapter 10, P. Lens, J. Virkutyte, V. Jegatheesan, Seung-Hyun Kim, and S. Al-Abed (ed.), Nanotechnology for Water and Wastewater Treatment, ISBN:9781780404585. IWA Publishing, London, Uk, , 231-258, (2013).
Impact/Purpose:
This chapter describes the potential of nanotechnology to provide new solutions to managing and cleaning our contaminated water and soil and improving the performance of conventional technologies used in cleanup efforts.
Description:
This chapter describes the potential of nanotechnology to provide new solutions to managing and cleaning our contaminated water and soil and improving the performance of conventional technologies used in cleanup efforts. Our initial efforts have been focused on key pollutants of concern to US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which have been historically difficult to manage such as sources that release low-level but toxic chemicals in complex cleanup sites. In particular, development of a strategy using nanomaterials for in situ cleanup of the Superfund sites contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) has been one of the highest priorities of the EPA and other associated agencies. A series of our studies using novel nanoparticles to improve efforts to clean up PCBs-contaminated sites have shown promising results. Traditional adsorptive activated carbon was modified with iron/palladium (Fe/Pd) bimetallic nanoparticles, introducing the new concept of reactive activated carbon (RAC), which is more effective not only in physically trapping and isolating PCBs in the environment but also in chemically degrading the contaminants to less harmful and biodegradable compounds. The findings lead to the development of innovative practices to advance caps or barriers to contain and degrade PCBs and they have implications for nanotechnological treatment of other contaminants in the environment. In this chapter, we overview: i) tailor-designing of the properties of RAC at nanoscale; ii) working mechanisms of RAC for the adsorption and dechlorination of PCBs; iii) reactivity of various PCB congeners with RAC; and iv) technical challenges, on-going progress, and potential applications.
