Comparative study of trichloroethylene removal by different carbons and FeNi-carbon composites

Nanoscale zero-valent iron (NZVI) has been proven effective at degrading environmental (sic)contaminants of concern, yet field performance as an in situ remedy is lacking due to short (sic)reactive lifetimes and poor transport through porous media. The main (sic)objective of this study was to investigate and compare the performance of different carbon (sic)powders with different properties (surface (sic)area, pore-volume, conductivity, functional groups) on trichloroethylene (TCE) removal and transport (sic)properties. Carbon (sic)powders were used as the support for bimetallic FeNi nanoparticles, the composites were stabilized by poly(vinyl pyrrolidone), and the performance of (sic)the modified novel FeNi-carbon composites was compared. It was confirmed that several properties of the carbon were found to not affect TCE degradation by the FeNi-C composites while (sic)surface area, pore size, and functional groups are responsible for TCE adsorption by carbon (sic)powders. Carbon particle size was found to inversely affect the transport of the composite (sic)through porous media, with smaller carbon supports such as carbon black correlating to a wider (sic)radius of influence, as compared to larger biochar carbon particulates. Significantly, FeNi-C (sic)shows improved TCE degradation over Fe or FeNi nanoparticles alone, indicating the utility of (sic)using carbon supports to promote dehalogenation reactions and increase NZVI longevity(sic).