Abstract
Recently, heavy metal pollution in soil has been threatening human health and ecological security. Natural attapulgite suffers from low efficiency in the passivation of heavy metals present in soil. Herein, a simple one-step hydrothermal method was introduced to modify low-grade attapulgite by introducing exogenous Si2+/Mg2+/Ca2+ for the passivation of cadmium in soils. Results from field-emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy techniques showed that some attapulgite and associated minerals transformed into amorphous silicate particles with low crystallinity and were uniformly distributed on the attapulgite surface. Results from the toxic characteristic leaching procedure and CaCl2 extraction showed that the bioavailability and leaching toxicity of cadmium reduced considerably by the addition of modified attapulgite. Results from the European Community Bureau of Reference’s sequential extraction method showed that the addition of modified attapulgite could promote the conversion of soil acid-exchangeable and reducible speciation cadmium into oxidizable and residual speciation cadmium. Moreover, results from pot experiments showed that the modified attapulgite could effectively reduce the adsorption of cadmium by rice and alleviate the inhibitory effect of cadmium on plant growth. In particular, the modified attapulgite exerted the best immobilization effect on cadmium when the Si2+:Mg2+:Ca2+ ratio was 2:1:2. The mechanisms of cadmium immobilization include electrostatic adsorption, coprecipitation, ion exchange, and surface functional group complexation. This study demonstrates the advantages of using low-grade attapulgite as a new material for the remediation of cadmium-contaminated soil and provides a reference for the development and application of environmentally friendly passivation agents.
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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author [Jun Ren], upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The work was financially supported by the industrial Support Program of Education Department of Gansu Province (2021CYZC-31), the project of Gansu Province Science and Technology Plan (22CX3GA076), the Lanzhou Talent Innovation and Entrepreneurship Project (2021-RC-41), the Natural Science Foundation of Ningxia province (2023AAC03336), the “Innovative Star” Project for Outstanding Graduate Students in Gansu Province (2022CXZX-514), and funding from the Ningxia Normal University Liupanshan Resource Engineering Technology Research Centre (HGZD22-12).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by GM and JR. The first draft of the manuscript was written by LT, GM, and XH and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Ma, G., Ren, J., Tao, L. et al. Effectiveness and potential mechanism of hydrothermal modification of attapulgite for cadmium passivation in soil. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 21, 2953–2964 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-05124-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-05124-z