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Effect of carbonation on leaching behavior, engineering properties and microstructure of cement-stabilized lead-contaminated soils

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Abstract

Cement stabilization/solidification (s/s) is a widely used remediation technology for lead-contaminated sites. However, the physical and chemical transformations caused by carbonation may affect the long-term effectiveness of s/s. This work presents the effect of carbonation on the performance of cement-stabilized lead-contaminated soils. Artificially contaminated soils with different lead contents were stabilized using cement, and a series of semi-dynamic leaching tests, unconfined compressive tests and microstructure tests were performed on carbonated and non-carbonated samples. The experimental results showed that carbonation decreased the effective diffusion coefficient and leached concentration of lead, resulting in 16–36% increase in strength, 13–44% increase in secant modulus and 3.5–6.4% reduction in porosity, and lowering pH values in the pore solution from 11–12 to 8–9. Increasing initial lead content from 0.1 to 2.5% resulted in a marked increase in the effective diffusion coefficient of lead. The variations in lead leaching and strength upon carbonation could be well interpreted by the thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction analysis and scanning electron microscope results. The main leaching mechanism of lead release in cement-stabilized soils was diffusion, for both carbonated and non-carbonated specimens. Cement was very effective in immobilizing lead, and the cement matrix could be performed much better in retaining lead upon carbonation.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51578148), the Fundamental Research Founds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2242017K40128, No.2242014R30020), and the Research Innovation Program for College Graduates of Jiangsu Province (No. KYLX16_0241).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, People’s Republic of China

    Dingwen Zhang, Zhiguo Cao & Xinjie Su

  2. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Urban Underground Engineering & Environmental Safety, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, People’s Republic of China

    Dingwen Zhang & Zhiguo Cao

  3. Jiangsu Province Communications Planning and Design Institute Limited Company, Nanjing, 210014, People’s Republic of China

    Tao Zhang

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  1. Dingwen Zhang
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  2. Zhiguo Cao
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  3. Tao Zhang
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Correspondence to Dingwen Zhang.

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Zhang, D., Cao, Z., Zhang, T. et al. Effect of carbonation on leaching behavior, engineering properties and microstructure of cement-stabilized lead-contaminated soils. Environ Earth Sci 76, 724 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-017-7071-1

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