Efficient nitrate removal using micro‐electrolysis with zero valent iron/activated carbon nanocomposite

Abstract

BACKGROUND Increasing nitrate concentration in ground water resources due to increased municipal and industrial contaminations is posing a great threat to human health worldwide. Therefore, an efficient technique to remove nitrate from ground water is in high demand. RESULT In this study, nanoscale zero valent iron (NZVI)/activated carbon (AC) nanocomposite material was successfully synthesized to form a highly efficient micro‐galvanic cell to be used in the chemical reduction of nitrate. Analysis of NZVI‐AC composites were conducted by BET, XRD, SEM, TEM and XPS, while utilizing sodium borohydride as a reducing agent in liquid phase reaction for the reduction of ferrous ions. Several factors during the preparation process were investigated for their effect on the performance of the material when used for the reduction of nitrate in aqueous media. Experiment results demonstrated that the material prepared under optimized preparation conditions can remove up to 94.3% of nitrates with composites at 2.1 g L−1. The final degradation products are mainly N2 and NH4+. CONCLUSION The composites were found to behave more efficiently for nitrate removal when compared with NZVI. In addition, the production of these new composite materials can be economically scaled up as with NZVI, which is necessary for practical environmental remediation. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry

Adsorptive performance of nanosized zero‐valent iron for V(V) removal from aqueous solutions

“…Nanosized zero-valent iron (nZVI) has become an effective material for the removal of various toxic aqueous ions in recent years due to small particle size, ease of preparation, low standard potential, large surface area and being environmentally friendly since elemental iron itself has no known toxic effect and is one of the most abundant elements in the earth's crust. 13 -19 In this study, removal of V(V) was investigated for the first time using nZVI. The sorbent was first characterized using several techniques such as scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX), thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis.…”

Development of ternary nanoadsorbent composites of graphene oxide, activated carbon, and zero‐valent iron nanoparticles for food applications

“…According to the results of Juang et al () who fabricated Fe 3 O 4 /activated carbon nanocomposites for the treatment of wastewater, the developed nanocomposites represented rod‐shaped active carbons with a high surface area, and the Fe 3 O 4 particles were dispersed uniformly on the active carbon surface which approves the results of this study. Moreover, Liu et al () developed nZVI‐activated carbon composites for the formation of an efficient microgalvanic cell as a reduction agent of nitrate. The SEM analysis revealed that chain form aggregates of nZVI are deposited mostly on the surface of the active carbon bodies which promotes the process of microelectrocatalysis.…”

“…With the packing of the nZVI between the graphene sheets, new physicochemical properties are obtained as well as creating stable structures. Moreover, with the placement of these nanostructures in an external magnetic field, the separation process would become simple (Fan et al, 2016;Jabeen, Kemp, & Chandra, 2013;Liu et al, 2016a;Lv et al, 2014;Xing, Xu, & Wang, 2016;Yang, Tian, Zhang, Guo, & Yan, 2015;Zhang, Dwivedi, Chi, & Wu, 2010).…”

Microbial electrolysis cell as an emerging versatile technology: a review on its potential application, advance and challenge

“…Nitrates and sulfate are the focus of this section. Nitrate has been found in groundwater worldwide and is commonly removed using physical techniques, chemical techniques, photocatalytic degradation or electrodeionization . Biological denitrification has been proved to be heterotrophic and widely used in wastewater treatment.…”

“…Nitrate has been found in groundwater worldwide and is commonly removed using physical techniques, chemical techniques, photocatalytic degradation or electrodeionization. [102][103][104][105] Biological denitrification has been proved to be heterotrophic and widely used in wastewater treatment. Nitrate as electron acceptor at a bacteria-catalyzed cathode in an MEC has been reported.…”