Supported Iron Nanoparticles on Activated Carbon, Polyethylene and Silica for Nitrate Reduction

The use of support materials on the nanoparticle synthesis and applications has advantages in many aspects; resisting the aggregation and gelation of nanoparticles, providing more active sites by dispersing over the supports, and facilitating a filtering process. In order to elucidate the influence of the supports on the nitrate reduction reactivity, the supported iron nanoparticles were prepared by borohydride reduction of an aqueous iron salt in the presence of supports such as activated carbon, silica and polyethylene. The reactivity for nitrate reduction decreased in the order of unsupported Fe(0) u003e activated carbon(AC) supported Fe(0) u003e polyethylene(PE) supported Fe(0) silica supported Fe(0). Rate constants decrease with increasing initial nitrate concentration implying that the reaction is limited by the surface reaction kinetics.