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Laboratory investigation on the retention performance of a soil–bentonite mixture used as an engineered barrier: insight into the effects of ionic strength and associated heavy metal ions

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Abstract

Soil–bentonite (S-B) materials are promising backfill materials for use as engineered barriers in heavy metal-contaminated sites. The effects of contaminant exposure on the retention performance of the S-B barrier remain unrevealed. In this study, based on the pollution status of an abandoned ferroalloy factory located in southern China, the retention performance of the S-B mixture toward Cr(VI) and Zn(II) was studied through adsorption and diffusion experiments sequentially; the separate effect of ionic strength (binary solution) and the combined effect of ionic strength and associated heavy metal ion (ternary solution) were discussed. In NaCl–Cr(VI)/Zn(II) binary solutions, the adsorption of Zn(II) onto the S-B mixture is larger than that of Cr(VI). Kd, Qmax, and ɛacc (accessible porosity) of Cr(VI) increase through increasing ionic strength, while Zn(II) shows the opposite trend; De (effective diffusion coefficient) values for both Cr(VI) and Zn(II) increased with increasing ionic strength and follow a sequence of Cr(VI) > Zn(II), indicating a better retention performance of the S-B mixture to Zn(II). For a given ionic strength, the adsorption of Zn(II) was larger than that of Cr(VI), which can be attributed to the retention specificity of the S-B mixture to anion and cation. In Cr(VI)–Zn(II)–NaCl ternary solutions, the adsorptions of Cr(VI) and Zn(II) are enhanced in varying degrees when compared with their binary solution, which probably could be attributed to the ion bridge role of Cr(VI)/Zn(II) to connect each other that relatively increased the adsorption capacity of S-B material. This work will contribute to an in-depth understanding of the retention performance of the S-B mixture in complicated chemical environments and facilitate the selection of future remediation strategies.

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Data availability

The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Funding

The authors are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project Nos. 42072318 and 41972282 and 41807253); the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Project No. 2019YFC1805905); and the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, China (Project No. 2019JJ50763) for the financial support. And they are also grateful to the research fund program of the State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry (Project No. SKLEG2021208).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Metallogenic Prediction of Nonferrous Metals and Geological Environment Monitoring (Central South University), Ministry of Education, Changsha, People’s Republic of China

    Qi He, Yong He, Zhao Zhang & Ke-neng Zhang

  2. School of Geosciences and Info-Physics, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Qi He, Yong He, Zhao Zhang & Ke-neng Zhang

  3. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Qi He & Hui-ping Hu

  4. Hunan HIKEE Environmental Technology CO., LTD, Changsha, 410221, China

    Wei Lou

  5. Key Laboratory of Geotechnical & Underground Engineering of Ministry of Education and Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, People’s Republic of China

    Yong-gui Chen & Wei-min Ye

  6. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Guiyang, 550081, People’s Republic of China

    Jing Sun

Authors
  1. Qi He
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  2. Yong He
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  3. Hui-ping Hu
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  4. Wei Lou
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  5. Zhao Zhang
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  8. Wei-min Ye
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  9. Jing Sun
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Conceptualization, Yong He; methodology, Qi He and Yong He; writing, original draft preparation, Qi He and Yong He; writing, review and editing, Yong He and Zhao Zhang; funding acquisition, Yong He and Ke-neng Zhang; resources, Wei Lou and Jing Sun; and supervision, Hui-ping Hu, Yong-gui Chen, and Wei-min Ye.

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Correspondence to Yong He.

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He, Q., He, Y., Hu, Hp. et al. Laboratory investigation on the retention performance of a soil–bentonite mixture used as an engineered barrier: insight into the effects of ionic strength and associated heavy metal ions. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 50162–50173 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-25780-5

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