Arsenic adsorption on layered double hydroxides biochars and their amended red and calcareous soils

Abstract

Highly efficient amendments for controlling arsenic (As) pollution in soils are imperative to improve soil quality and enhance food production. In the present study, corn stalk biochar was functionalized with three kinds of layered double hydroxides (i.e., Mg-Al-LDH, Zn-Al-LDH, and Cu-Al-LDH) using a simple co-precipitation method. The synthesized LDH biochar composites (LDH@BCs) exhibited better adsorption capacity and affinity for As due to their enhanced anion exchange capacity and reactive surface hydroxyl groups identified by XRD, FTIR and XPS. Arsenic (As) bioavailability and leaching characteristics of spiked red and calcareous soils (150 mg As/kg) amended with or without LDH@BCs were investigated using soil column. The Zn-Al-LDH@BC decreased the As (V) migration and increased pak choi (Brassica chinensis L.) growth in both red and calcareous soil. These results indicated that LDH modified biochar is an effective way to overcome the shortfalls of unmodified biochar in mitigating the As contamination and provide a basis for further exploring the potential of biochar-based soil amendments for environmental remediation.

Keywords: Adsorption; Arsenic; Layered double hydroxide; Modified biochar; Soil remediation.