Abstract
Zerovalent iron (Fe0, ZVI) has drawn great interest as an inexpensive and effective material to promote the degradation of environmental contaminants. A focus of ZVI research is to increase degradation kinetics and overcome passivation for long-term remediation. Halide ions promote corrosion, which can increase and sustain ZVI reactivity. Adding chloride or bromide salts with Fe0 (1% w/v) greatly enhanced TNT, RDX, and HMX degradation rates in aqueous solution. Adding Cl or Br salts after 24 h also restored ZVI reactivity, resulting in complete degradation within 8 h. These observations may be attributed to removal of the passivating oxide layer and pitting corrosion of the iron. While the relative increase in degradation rate by Cl- and Br- was similar, TNT degraded faster than RDX and HMX. HMX was most difficult to remove using ZVI alone but ZVI remained effective after five HMX reseeding cycles when Br- was present in solution.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 634-641 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Environmental Pollution |
Volume | 147 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 2007 |
Keywords
- Halide ion
- High explosives (HE)
- Passivation
- Reactivity
- Zerovalent iron (ZVI)
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Toxicology
- Pollution
- Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis