Encapsulation of iron nanoparticles in alginate biopolymer for trichloroethylene remediation

• Published in: Journal of nanoparticle research : an interdisciplinary forum for nanoscale science and technology Vol. 13; no. 12; pp. 6673 - 6681
• Main Authors: Bezbaruah, Achintya N., Shanbhogue, Sai Sharanya, Simsek, Senay, Khan, Eakalak
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.12.2011; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biodegradation; Biopolymers; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Degradation; Encapsulation; Environmental cleanup; Inorganic Chemistry; Iron; Kinetics; Lasers; Materials Science; Nanoparticles; Nanostructure; Nanotechnology; Optical Devices; Optics; Photonics; Physical Chemistry; Rate constants; Remediation; Research Paper; Solvents; Trichloroethene; Trichloroethylene; Trichloroethylene (TCE); Nanoscale zero-valent iron (NZVI); Environmental remediation; Biopolymer; Encapsulated NZVI; Calcium-alginate
• ISSN: 1388-0764; 1572-896X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11051-011-0574-x

Nanoscale zero-valent iron (NZVI) particles (10–90 nm) were encapsulated in biodegradable calcium-alginate capsules for the first time for application in environmental remediation. Encapsulation is expected to offers distinct advances over entrapment. Trichloroethylene (TCE) degradation was 89–91% in 2 h, and the reaction followed pseudo first order kinetics for encapsulated NZVI systems with an observed reaction rate constant ( k obs ) of 1.92–3.23 × 10 −2  min −1 and a surface normalized reaction rate constant ( k sa ) of 1.02–1.72 × 10 −3  L m −2  min −1 . TCE degradation reaction rates for encapsulated and bare NZVI were similar indicating no adverse affects of encapsulation on degradation kinetics. The shelf-life of encapsulated NZVI was found to be four months with little decrease in TCE removal efficiency.