The Potency of Zero Valence Fe Particles as Degradation Agent for Organochlorine Pesticide and Alkylbenzenesulfonate Surfactant

Abstract

Remediation technology using zero valence Fe particles (Fe0) as an effective environmentally friendly pollutant degradation agent has been concerned by researchers in the last decade. In this research, Fe0 particles have been synthesized by using FeSO4·6H2O and Na2S2O3. The Fe0 particles were then tested for their ability in degrading hexachlorobenzene (HCB), hexachloroethane (HCE), and dodecylbenzenesulfonate (DBS) including their degradation performance and their respective kinetics. The degradation performance assay showed that the Fe0 particles were not able to degrade HCB and HCE optimally. However, DBS was successfully degraded by Fe0 even though it had just reached about 50% from the initial concentration. The best DBS degradation was conducted at pH 4 with optimum time of 40 minutes. DBS degradation reaction followed partial first order with an observed rate constant (k) of 4.0×10-3 min-1 and 8.74×10-3 min-1 for graphic method and substitution method, respectively.