Meng F, Xu J, Dai H, Yu Y, Lin D. Even Incorporation of Nitrogen into Fe
0 Nanoparticles as Crystalline Fe
4N for Efficient and Selective Trichloroethylene Degradation.
Environ Sci Technol 2022;
56:4489-4497. [PMID:
35316036 DOI:
10.1021/acs.est.1c08671]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Surface modification of microscale Fe powder with nitrogen has emerged recently to improve the reactivity of Fe0 for dechlorination. However, it is unclear how an even incorporation of a crystalline iron nitride phase into Fe0 nanoparticles affects their physicochemical properties and performance, or if Fe0 nanoparticles with a varied nitridation degree will act differently. Here, we synthesized nitridated Fe0 nanoparticles with an even distribution of N via a sol-gel and pyrolysis method. Nitridation expanded the Fe0 lattice and provided the Fe4N species, making the materials more hydrophobic and accelerating the electron transfer, compared to un-nitridated Fe0. These properties well explain their reactivity and selectivity toward trichloroethylene (TCE). The TCE degradation rate by nitridated Fe0 (up to 4.8 × 10-2 L m-2 h-1) was much higher (up to 27-fold) than that by un-nitridated Fe0, depending on the nitridation degree. The materials maintained a high electron efficiency (87-95%) due to the greatly suppressed water reactivity (109-127 times lower than un-nitridated Fe0). Acetylene was accumulated as the major product of TCE dechlorination via β-elimination. These findings suggest that the nitridation of Fe0 nanoparticles can change the materials' physicochemical properties, providing high reactivity and selectivity toward chlorinated contaminants for in situ groundwater remediation.
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