In-Situ Measurements of Engineered Nanoporous Particle Transport in Saturated Porous Media
Engineered nanoporous particles have become an important class of nano-structured materials that have found their increasing industrial, energy, and environmental applications. The internal pore surfaces in the particles can be chemically tailored to sequestrate metals and radionuclide contaminants from groundwater. The fate and transport of the nanoporous particles in subsurface environments, however, have not been studied. Here we present a scanning optical fiber fluorescence profiler that can be used to in situ measure the transport of fluorescence-tagged colloidal and nano-structured particles in column systems. Engineered nanoporous silicate particles (ENSPs) that were covalently bonded with fluorescence-emitting, and uranium-chelating ligands in the intraparticle pore domains were synthesized and used as an example to investigate the nanoporous particle transport and to demonstrate the application of the developed in situ measurement profiler. The profiler detected an irreversible or slowly detached fraction of ENSPs in the sand collector even under conditions thermodynamically unfavorable to particle attachment. Further, the in situ measurement system detected the spatial variability of ENSPs transport that deviated from one-dimensional, homogeneous assumption that is typically used to model particle transport in the column. Generally, however, both measured and model-calculated results indicated that the transport of ENSPs were consistent with that of nonporous colloidal particles that subjected to coupled reversible attachment/detachment and straining processes. The developed system can also be applied to detect other fluorescence-tagged nano-structured or colloidal particle transport.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab. (EMSL)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1000128
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-72691; ESTHAG; 38396; KP1501040; TRN: US201024%%322
- Journal Information:
- Environmental Science & Technology, 44(21):8190-8195, Vol. 44, Issue 21; ISSN 0013-936X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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