Remediation of Cu and As contaminated water and soil utilizing biochar supported layered double hydroxide: Mechanisms and soil environment altering
Graphical abstract
Introduction
The hazardous heavy metal pollution is an urgent problem appearing in both aqueous and soil environment (Jiang et al., 2009; Yuan et al., 2021). Mostly, in the process of human productive activity, heavy metals enter the water and then the polluted water was used to irrigate farmland, which further leads to soil pollution (Khan et al., 2008). Moreover, due to the high mobility and non-biodegradability, these toxic elements may agglomerate in the food cycle and pose significant hazard to creatures and environment (Zhao et al., 2012). In view of the current situation of water and soil polluted by heavy metals in China (Huang et al., 2019; Yang et al., 2014), it is an imperative challenge to effectively remediate the water and soils contaminated by heavy metals. Appreciable research force has been applied to developing methods for the remediation of heavy metal polluted water and soils (Abdullah et al., 2019; Li et al., 2019). Among these remediation technologies, adsorption (Chai et al., 2018) and chemical immobilization (Sun et al., 2016) are the most common methods for remediation of heavy metals in water and soil, respectively. To date, a series of adsorbents and soil amendments such as lime, phosphate, zeolite, mesoporous silicon and biochar have been developed to resolve the contamination (El Rasafi et al., 2017; Koptsik, 2014; Yao et al., 2012). However, few of them are effective in the synchronous elimination of anionic and cationic heavy metals from effluents and soils. Thus, it is necessary to develop these kinds of materials which can concurrently separate anionic and cationic heavy metals from natural environment.
Biochar has been widely recognized as a promising candidate for water and soil remediation due to its unique and versatile features, especially for the removal of cationic ions (Cu, Pb, Cd, etc.) in aqueous and soil environment (Luo et al., 2022; Qi et al., 2022; Wang et al., 2019; Xiang et al., 2020). However, traditional biochar does not consistently show good performance in practical application and it has also shown some negative effect on anionic ions (such as As) removal (Beesley et al., 2010; Cui et al., 2016; Yin et al., 2016; Zhang et al., 2016). Accordingly, attempting to combine pristine biochar with other active materials is vital to expanding its natural appliance. Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) with hydrotalcite-like structure consist of two or more kinds of divalent and trivalent metal ions, which can be classified as layered anionic clay (Kovanda et al., 2003). Due to the unique physical and chemical properties of LDHs, it has been widely used to remove heavy metals from water and soil (Hudcová et al., 2019; Laipan et al., 2018; Zhou et al., 2018). However, poor porosity development and dense multilayered stacking of LDH limit their adsorption capacity (Mo et al., 2019; Shang et al., 2019).
Assembling LDHs into the surface of biochar is an assuring treatment to strengthen their properties for the remediation of heavy metals. Many studies have been carried out on the adsorption mechanism of heavy metals by biochar supported LDHs composites (Jia et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2018). However, there is a lack of research on the remediation mechanism of biochar supported LDHs composites for the removal of anionic and cationic heavy metals in water and soil simultaneously. In addition, the soil amendments may have a strong toxic effect on soil environment and thus inhibit plant growth, therefore currently studies have evaluated the feasibility of the application of amendments in soil remediation through the variation in soil enzyme activities and microbial communities (Hazrati et al., 2021; Lan et al., 2021). On the other hand, amendments can provide carbon source and habitat for microorganisms and change the composition of soil microbial community, which plays a positive role in reducing the bioavailability of heavy metals (Meier et al., 2017). However, there are few researches on the effects of biochar supported LDHs composites on soil enzyme activities and microbial community.
Therefore, the specific intentions of this investigation were to: (i) prepare an environment-friendly biochar supported FeMnMg-LDH composite (LB); (ii) verify the removal performance and mechanisms of heavy metals (Cu and As) by LB in water; and (iii) apply LB into the Cu and As polluted soil to investigate its passivation performance by availability and chemical speciation of heavy metals and its effect on soil environment through the variation of soil enzyme activities and microbial communities.
Section snippets
Chemicals and reagents
The definite chemicals and reagents were listed in Appendix A Text S1.
Production of BC and LB
Before carbonizing, corn straw was gathered, air-dried and crop to lengths less than 2 cm. Corn straw biochar (BC) was prepared by slow pyrolysis in a muffle furnace. The furnace was heated to 600°C at a heating rate of 10°C/min and held at this temperature for 2 hr. Then biochar samples were pulverized to pass through a 100-mesh sieve. In brief, LB was completed based on the previous report with a minor modification (
Characterization of BC and LB
Fig. 1a showed the XRD patterns of BC and LB. The XRD of the BC exhibited a broad diffraction peak around 22° that could be responsible for the amorphous phase of biochar (Yang et al., 2019). Meanwhile, the strong peak at 26.6° in pristine biochar corresponded to silica dioxide, which could be attributed to high silicon adsorption by the corn straw (Peng et al., 2019). The sharp and symmetric hydrotalcite-like crystalline pattern planes (003), (006) and (009) in terms of LB corresponded to
Conclusion
A successful synthesis of novel and effective biochar supported layered double hydroxide composites (LB) was developed. For BC and LB, isotherm studies of Cu and As were both well described by the Langmuir model. Kinetics data of LB were well suited by the pseudo-second-order model for Cu, while pseudo-first-order-model fit well with As kinetics data. The primary removal mechanisms by LB were concerned with isomorphic substitution, precipitation and electrostatic adsorption for Cu and
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2018YFC1802800), the Local Innovation and Entrepreneurship Team Project of Guangdong Special Support Program (No. 2019BT02L218) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41673091, U1501234).
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