Effects of dry-wet cycles on mechanical and leaching characteristics of magnesium phosphate cement-solidified Zn-contaminated soils

Abstract

Although magnesium phosphate cement (MPC) is conventionally deemed effective in heavy metal-contaminated soil remediation, the variations of its mechanical and leaching characteristics under the action of dry-wet cycles remain unclear as yet. This paper primarily addressed the effect of dry-wet cycles and fly ash on MPC-solidified zinc-contaminated soil via a disparate group of experiments. In this study, solidified cylindrical samples were subjected to different drying-wetting cycles ranging in times from 0 to 10 with varying content of fly ash. We then measured the mass loss, the unconfined compressive strength, and the Zn²⁺ leaching concentration of the leachate for the samples undergoing specified cycles. In addition, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) tests were conducted to explore the mechanism of MPC-solidified zinc-contaminated soil with fly ash. The results indicate that the Zn²⁺ concentration in the leaching solution increases rapidly with the number of cycles for 0–3 cycles and then tends to flatten out. Moreover, the unconfined compressive strength of the samples without fly ash decreases with an increasing dry-wet cycles. For the samples with various fly ash contents, in contrast, their unconfined compressive strength experiences an initial rise and a subsequent decline owing to the development of dry-wet cycles. With the purpose of facilitating practical applications, the appropriate fly ash content (approximately 20%) was estimated in terms of the enhanced dry-wet cycles durability of the solidified soil and unconfined compressive strength, according to the limited experimental measurements undertaken (for the Zn²⁺ concentration of 0.5). The role of dry-wet cycles in the physical and leaching properties of MPC-solidified soil may be of major practical significance.