Highly Efficient Destruction of Perchlorate to Nontoxic Chloride Ion (Cl-) from Aqueous Solutions by Bimetallic Fe/Ni Nanoparticles

Abstract

In this work, stabilized Ni/Fe bimetallic nanoparticles (S-Ni/Fe NPs) were synthesized in the presence of starch as the stabilizing agent and characterized by FE-SEM, EDS, and XRD. The results showed that the S-Ni/Fe NPs were spherical in the shape and have a nearly uniform distribution with a particle size of 20-50 nm. Then, perchlorate as a persistent inorganic pollutant was destructed to chloride ion by the S-Ni/Fe NPs. The main factors controlling the removal of perchlorates, such as the initial pH of the solution, the dosage of the S–Fe/Ni NPs, initial perchlorate concentration, temperature, and reaction time were optimized by using an experimental design based on response surface methodology. Under the optimal conditions, perchlorate was destructed with an efficiency of nearly 100%. The kinetics for the destruction of perchlorate by the S-Ni/Fe NPs complied with pseudo-first-order characteristics. The rate constant (Kobs) and activation energy (Ea) for the destruction were obtained 0.0471 1/min at 343 K and 13.07 kJ/mol, respectively. Therefore, the present study offers a powerful bimetallic nanoparticle for the destruction of the environmental oxidant pollutants such as perchlorate from aqueous media.

Keywords

• perchlorate
• destruction
• persistent inorganic pollutants
• bimetallic nanoparticles