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Interaction between biochar-dissolved organic matter and chlorophenols during biochar adsorption

Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2023)Cite this article

Abstract

Biochar (BC) has been widely applied in the remediation of chlorophenols (CPs) from contaminated sites in which the role and mechanisms of BC dissolved organic matter (BDOM), as a crucial component of BC, with CPs are largely unknown and thus need to be investigated. In this study, DOM was derived from peanut hulls (PDOM) and corn stalks (CDOM) as BC sources, and the interactions between PDOM/CDOM and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (TCP) were analysed using excitation-emission matrix spectroscopy (EEM) in combination with multiple models. EEM combined with fluorescence region integration (EEM-FRI) indicated that humic-like materials were the major materials of both PDOM and CDOM (percentage fluorescence response Ri,n > 60%), and CDOM contained more protein- and fulvic-like materials than PDOM. Based on EEM in combination with parallel factor analysis (EEM-PARAFAC), 4 components were obtained, and the percentage decrease in maximum fluorescence intensities (Fmax) showed that the main components interacting with TCP in PDOM/CDOM were protein- and fulvic-like components (> 25%). Moreover, the modified Stern–Volmer model was used to calculate the stability constants (Log KTCP) of PDOM/CDOM and TCP for the first time, and the mechanism of static quenching was dominant for interacting with TCP in PDOM (Log KTCP: 4.36–4.65) and CDOM (Log KTCP: 3.53–4.73). Furthermore, the sequential TCP binding of fluorescent components in BDOM generally followed the order of protein-like → short-wavelength fulvic-like → long-wavelength fulvic-like → humic-like components. These findings will provide a basis for screening biochar as a functional material for CP remediation applications and for understanding the environmental chemical behaviour of leached DOM during biochar application.

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Data availability

All data generated or analysed during this study are with the corresponding author, and, if necessary, she is available for taking any question about the datasets and these can be requested by reasonable request.

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Funding

The present study was supported jointly through the National Key Research and Development Plan (2019YFC1805800 and 2020YFC1808200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42125706, 42107464, 42077401, 41907318, and 41877377), the Project funded by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2021M702074), and the Shanghai Post-doctoral Excellence Program (2021160).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental Pollution and Health, School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, People’s Republic of China

    Jin Zhang, Hui Li, Biao Cheng, Xuan Zhou & Chen Wang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 10012, People’s Republic of China

    Nannan Huang

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  1. Jin Zhang
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  2. Nannan Huang
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  3. Hui Li
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  4. Biao Cheng
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  6. Chen Wang
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Contributions

Zhang contributed to the conceptualization and writing and was a major contributor to writing the original draft. Huang contributed to the data curation. Li contributed to reviewing and editing the manuscript. Cheng contributed to the experimental investigation and data curation. Zhou contributed to the data curation. Wang contributed to reviewing and editing the manuscript, and providing methodology. All of the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Chen Wang.

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Highlights

•Variety of DOM constituents derived from BC is influenced by the source and structure

•Static quenching mechanism was dominant for interacting with TCP in BDOM

•Same fluorophores in diverse BDOMs have significantly different affinities for TCP

•The order of TCP binding is protein-→short-fulvic-→long-fulvic-→humic-like components

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Zhang, J., Huang, N., Li, H. et al. Interaction between biochar-dissolved organic matter and chlorophenols during biochar adsorption. Environ Sci Pollut Res (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-25083-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-25083-1

Keywords

  • Chlorophenols
  • Dissolved organic matter
  • Interaction mechanisms
  • Stability constants
  • Sequential binding