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Title: Remediation of heavy metal contaminated soil by asymmetrical alternating current electrochemistry

Abstract

Soil contamination by heavy metals constitutes an important environmental problem, whereas field applicability of existing remediation technologies has encountered numerous obstacles, such as long operation time, high chemical cost, large energy consumption, secondary pollution, and soil degradation. Here we report the design and demonstration of a remediation method based on a concept of asymmetrical alternating current electrochemistry that achieves high degrees of contaminant removal for different heavy metals (copper, lead, cadmium) at different initial concentrations (from 100 to 10,000 ppm), all reaching corresponding regulation levels for residential scenario after rational treatment time (from 30 min to 6 h). No excessive nutrient loss in treated soil is observed and no secondary toxic product is produced. Long-term experiment and plant assay show the high sustainability of the method and its feasibility for agricultural use.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [3]
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  1. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
  2. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
  3. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering; SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science (SIMES)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1532468
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-76SF00515
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Communications
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 10; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY

Citation Formats

Xu, Jinwei, Liu, Chong, Hsu, Po-Chun, Zhao, Jie, Wu, Tong, Tang, Jing, Liu, Kai, and Cui, Yi. Remediation of heavy metal contaminated soil by asymmetrical alternating current electrochemistry. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10472-x.
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Xu, Jinwei, Liu, Chong, Hsu, Po-Chun, Zhao, Jie, Wu, Tong, Tang, Jing, Liu, Kai, & Cui, Yi. Remediation of heavy metal contaminated soil by asymmetrical alternating current electrochemistry. United States. doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10472-x.
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Xu, Jinwei, Liu, Chong, Hsu, Po-Chun, Zhao, Jie, Wu, Tong, Tang, Jing, Liu, Kai, and Cui, Yi. Tue . "Remediation of heavy metal contaminated soil by asymmetrical alternating current electrochemistry". United States. doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10472-x. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1532468.
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@article{osti_1532468,
title = {Remediation of heavy metal contaminated soil by asymmetrical alternating current electrochemistry},
author = {Xu, Jinwei and Liu, Chong and Hsu, Po-Chun and Zhao, Jie and Wu, Tong and Tang, Jing and Liu, Kai and Cui, Yi},
abstractNote = {Soil contamination by heavy metals constitutes an important environmental problem, whereas field applicability of existing remediation technologies has encountered numerous obstacles, such as long operation time, high chemical cost, large energy consumption, secondary pollution, and soil degradation. Here we report the design and demonstration of a remediation method based on a concept of asymmetrical alternating current electrochemistry that achieves high degrees of contaminant removal for different heavy metals (copper, lead, cadmium) at different initial concentrations (from 100 to 10,000 ppm), all reaching corresponding regulation levels for residential scenario after rational treatment time (from 30 min to 6 h). No excessive nutrient loss in treated soil is observed and no secondary toxic product is produced. Long-term experiment and plant assay show the high sustainability of the method and its feasibility for agricultural use.},
doi = {10.1038/s41467-019-10472-x},
journal = {Nature Communications},
number = 1,
volume = 10,
place = {United States},
year = {2019},
month = {6}
}
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Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
DOI:  10.1038/s41467-019-10472-x
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Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 12 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Working principle of the AACE method. a Schematic of an AACE remediation system. EDTA solution is recirculated to wash the contaminated soil. The AACE filter recovers heavy metal cations from the washing effluent and recycles the EDTA solution for repeated use. b Illustration drawing of the AACE filter,more » composed of two parallel Ami-PC electrodes and a separator. c The waveform of the applied bias and the physical process in the AACE filtration. In step I, all the ions are randomly dispersed in the washing effluent. In step II, a bias of 5 V applied, an electrical double layer is established on the surface of the Ami-PC electrode, with anions in the inner layer. The chelation sites will bind heavy metal cations and stabilize the MEDTA2− on the electrode surface. In step III, a bias of −10 V applied, heavy metal cations are electrochemically reduced to zero-valent particles. EDTA anions are repelled by the negative bias due to less affinity with the charge-neutral particles. Soil nutrient elements are reserved in this process because of their lower reduction potential« less
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    Ecological and human health risks appraisal of metal(loid)s in agricultural soils: a review
    text, January 2019

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