In situ arsenic oxidation and sorption by a Fe-Mn binary oxide waste in soil

• Published in: Journal of hazardous materials Vol. 342; pp. 724 - 731
• Main Authors: McCann, Clare M., Peacock, Caroline L., Hudson-Edwards, Karen A., Shrimpton, Thomas, Gray, Neil D., Johnson, Karen L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 15-01-2018
• Subjects: Arsenic; Fe-Mn binary oxide; Lead; Remediation; Soil; Fe-Mn binary oxide; Soil; Lead; Remediation; Arsenic
• ISSN: 0304-3894; 1873-3336
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2017.08.066

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•A Fe-Mn binary oxide waste is used to remediate As contaminated soils.•As(III) and As(V) adsorption capacities of 70mgg−1 and 32mgg−1 were determined.•The bioaccessibility of total As was significantly reduced by 7.80%.•Arsenic in the contaminated soil effectively binds to the exogenous binary oxide.•As(V) was sorbed by mononuclear bidentate corner-sharing with Fe.
The ability of a Fe-Mn binary oxide waste to adsorb arsenic (As) in a historically contaminated soil was investigated. Initial laboratory sorption experiments indicated that arsenite [As(III)] was oxidized to arsenate [As(V)] by the Mn oxide component, with concurrent As(V) sorption to the Fe oxide. The binary oxide waste had As(III) and As(V) adsorption capacities of 70mgg−1 and 32mgg−1 respectively. X-ray Absorption Near-Edge Structure and Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure at the As K-edge confirmed that all binary oxide waste surface complexes were As(V) sorbed by mononuclear bidentate corner-sharing, with 2 Fe at ∼3.27Ǻ. The ability of the waste to perform this coupled oxidation-sorption reaction in real soils was investigated with a 10% by weight addition of the waste to an industrially As contaminated soil. Electron probe microanalysis showed As accumulation onto the Fe oxide component of the binary oxide waste, which had no As innately. The bioaccessibility of As was also significantly reduced by 7.80% (p<0.01) with binary oxide waste addition. The results indicate that Fe-Mn binary oxide wastes could provide a potential in situ remediation strategy for As and Pb immobilization in contaminated soils.