Preparation of Fe/Cu bimetals by ball milling iron powder and copper sulfate for trichloroethylene degradation: Combined effect of FeSx and Fe/Cu alloy

Bo Fan; Bingnan Zhou; Si Chen; Fengxiao Zhu; Bo Chen; Zhimin Gong; Xiaolei Wang; Changyin Zhu; Dongmei Zhou; Feng He; Shixiang Gao

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132402

Preparation of Fe/Cu bimetals by ball milling iron powder and copper sulfate for trichloroethylene degradation: Combined effect of FeS_x and Fe/Cu alloy

J Hazard Mater. 2023 Oct 15:460:132402. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132402. Epub 2023 Aug 24.

Authors

Bo Fan¹, Bingnan Zhou¹, Si Chen², Fengxiao Zhu³, Bo Chen², Zhimin Gong¹, Xiaolei Wang¹, Changyin Zhu⁴, Dongmei Zhou¹, Feng He², Shixiang Gao⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China.
² College of Environment, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China.
³ School of Environment, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China. Electronic address: cyzhu@nju.edu.cn.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China. Electronic address: ecsxg@nju.edu.cn.

PMID: 37660624
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132402

Abstract

The addition of a secondary metal (such as Cu, Co, Ni and Pd) to form iron-based bimetallic particles could enhance the reactivity of zero valent iron (ZVI). This study proposed a new synthesis method for preparing Cu-Fe bimetals (Cu-Fe^bm (CuSO₄)) by ball milling mZVI and CuSO₄. During ball-milling process, 40% of Cu²⁺ can be reduced to Cu⁰, which formed galvanic couple with Fe⁰ in a way of Fe/Cu alloy structure. Part Cu²⁺ was only reduced to Cu⁺ (corresponding to Cu₂O), while 29% of SO₄^2- was reduced to S_x^2- (corresponding to FeS_x). The appearance of Cu₂O was not conducive to the activity of Cu-Fe^bm (CuSO₄) particles, the formation of Fe⁰/FeS_x structure compensated for the partial loss of Fe/Cu alloy. H•_abs was identified as the main active species for TCE degradation by Cu-Fe^bm (CuSO₄) bimetals. The Cu-Fe^bm (CuSO₄) bimetals has great potential for the removal of chlorinated hydrocarbons in water.

Keywords: Bimetals; Copper sulphate; Hydrogen radical; Trichloroethylene; Zero valent iron.