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A facile pyrolysis synthesis of biochar/ZnO passivator: immobilization behavior and mechanisms for Cu (II) in soil

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Abstract

Waste biomass can be recycled to prepare biochar for soil restoration, in which process soil fertility would not be lost. In this work, biochar was prepared from waste pomelo peel, combined with ZnO, to be used to immobilize Cu(II) in contaminated soil, whose maximum adsorption capacity was up to 216.37 mg g−1. Due to combination of ZnO, the BET surface area of biochar increased from 2.39 to 18.53 m2 g−1. Meanwhile, the surface functional groups increased, which was conducive to fixation of metal ion on the surface of biochar. Both pseudo-second-order kinetics and Langmuir isotherm model fit the experimental data well. Adsorption was easy to happen since the adsorption site on the surface of biochar/ZnO had a strong affinity with Cu(II). In addition, mechanism investigation indicated that Cu(II) was bond with biochar/ZnO mainly by non-bioavailable state (75.6%) primarily. It inferred that biochar/ZnO was an efficient and promising passivator in reducing heavy metal risk in soil.

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Funding

This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41573103, 41340037), the Key Research and Development Program (2017GSF16105, 2018GGX102004, 2018GGX104005, 2018GSF117007) of Shandong Province of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory Base of Eco-Chemical Engineering, Qingdao University of Science & Technology, Qingdao, 266042, PR China

    Ying Wang, Luxing Wang, Xiaoyan Deng & Hongtao Gao

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  1. Ying Wang
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  2. Luxing Wang
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  3. Xiaoyan Deng
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  4. Hongtao Gao
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Correspondence to Xiaoyan Deng or Hongtao Gao.

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Wang, Y., Wang, L., Deng, X. et al. A facile pyrolysis synthesis of biochar/ZnO passivator: immobilization behavior and mechanisms for Cu (II) in soil. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 1888–1897 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06888-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06888-z

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