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Transport of anatase and rutile titanium dioxide nanoparticles in soils in the presence of phosphate: mechanisms and numerical modeling

  • Soils, Sec 3 • Remediation and Management of Contaminated or Degraded Lands • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

It is known for titanium dioxide nanoparticles (nTiO2) during production and application to inevitably enter the soil and aquatic environments, posing potential toxic risks to human health and living environments. This triggers the necessity to clarify the underlying mechanisms governing the fate and transport of nTiO2 with different crystal structures in different soils.

Materials and methods

The anatase and rutile nTiO2 were examined in saturated columns packed with varying the mass fraction (λ) of sand/soil (i.e., red soil and paddy soil) mixtures in the presence of phosphate. Moreover, numerical modeling based upon the two-site kinetic retention model was employed to unravel the retention mechanisms.

Results and discussion

This study showed that the degree of λ was found to have an obvious influence on the transport of nTiO2, irrespective of anatase and rutile. The transportability of nTiO2 was greatly decreased with the increase of λ. The rutile nTiO2 transport was more sensitive to the λ than anatase nTiO2, which especially happened in red soil due to the increased favorable retention sites resulting from the high contents of Fe (47.0 g kg−1) and Al (16.7 g kg−1) and the great specific surface area (38.6 m2 g−1). The second-order attachment coefficient (k2) and the maximum solid-phase concentration (Smax2), obtained by fitting the transport of both nTiO2 in red and paddy soils using two-point kinetic retention model, increased linearly with increasing the λ.

Conclusions

Overall, combined mechanisms (e.g., secondary minimum, particle aggregation, crystalline structure, and surface charge heterogeneity) are responsible for nTiO2 deposition in soils. Our findings provided a convincing theory for evaluating environmental risk of anatase and rutile nTiO2 in different soils.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21777110 and 42007130), the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Project of Suzhou (SNG2020043), and the Innovative and Entrepreneurial Doctor Program of Jiangsu Province (2020).

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Author notes

  1. Li Yang and Ming Chen contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, 215009, China

    Li Yang, Ming Chen, Dapeng Li, Nan Xu & Dongsheng Zhang

  2. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Environmental Functional Materials, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, 215009, China

    Nan Xu

  3. School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, 215009, China

    Jianping Chen

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  1. Li Yang
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  2. Ming Chen
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  3. Dapeng Li
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Correspondence to Nan Xu.

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Responsible editor: Hong Jie Di

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Yang, L., Chen, M., Li, D. et al. Transport of anatase and rutile titanium dioxide nanoparticles in soils in the presence of phosphate: mechanisms and numerical modeling. J Soils Sediments 22, 1987–1998 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-022-03211-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-022-03211-1

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