Abstract:
Antimony ore exploitation and antimonial compounds application have worsened the antimony pollution in the environment to a certain extent, and posed risks to human health and the ecosystem. In order to allevivate this issue, the study adopts the liquid phase reduction method to prepare the zeolite-supported nanoscale zero-valent iron (Z-ZVI) composite material, thus probing into its effect of removing Sb(Ⅲ) and Sb(Ⅴ). The study utilizes the scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to characterize the composite material before and after the reaction, and explores the impact of different material ratios, initial pH values of solution and inorganic anions on the adsorption efficiency for Sb(Ⅲ) and Sb(Ⅴ). The results show that: (1) With high specific surface area (54.54 m
2/g) and reactive activation, Z-ZVI can effectively adsorb and reduce high-valent antimony. (2) Under the condition that the pH value of Z-ZVI equals to 7 and 1.0 g/L, the adsorption efficiency for 20 mg/L of Sb(Ⅲ) and Sb(Ⅴ) reaches 88% and 62% respectively after four hours of reaction, and the adsorption process fits the pseudo-second order kinetic equation and Freundlich isothermal adsorption model. (3) The removal rate of Sb (Ⅲ) is not greatly affected by changes in pH value, but the removal rate of Sb(Ⅴ) decreases as the initial pH value increases, and the final pH value of solution after reaction goes up compared with the initial pH value. (4) XRD and XPS characterizations find that the process of removing Sb produces adsorption and reduction effects concurrently, and the oxidation of Fe
0 is accompanied by the reduction of high-valent antimony. The antimonial iron oxides are finally generated which fix antimony. (5) In the simulated groundwater adsorption and desorption experiments with relatively low antimony pollution, the removal rate of Sb(Ⅲ) and Sb(Ⅴ) can reach up to 96%, the concentration of antimony after adsorption can be reduced to 0.01 mg/L, and the desorption capacity is much less than the adsorption capacity. The study indicates that Z-ZVI materials can effectively remove Sb(Ⅲ) and Sb(Ⅴ) in polluted water, which has certain reference value for practical application of such materials in groundwater remediation.