Removal of tridecane dicarboxylic acid in water by nanoscale Fe0/Cu0 bimetallic composites

In this study, nanoscale zerovalent Fe0/Cu0 bimetallic composites were synthesized by liquid-phase reduction of Fe(II)/Cu(II) and applied for decomposition of tridecane dicarboxylic acid (DC13). The removal performance of Fe0/Cu0 bimetallic composites for DC13 in terms of Fe/Cu ratios, addition amount, reaction time and initial pH were studied. The as-prepared nanoscale composites were characterized by a transmission electron micrographs (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET surface area, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP). Finally, the degradation mechanisms of DC13 utilizing the Fe0/Cu0 nanocomposites were investigated by using mass spectrumetry (MS). The results indicated that the Fe0/Cu0 bimetallic composites exerted a remarkable removal capacity for DC13 through the multiple reactions, e.g., coagulation, adsorption and •OH reduction in the Fe0/Cu0 system. XPS indicated that the Fe0/Cu0 reduction reaction of hydroxyl radicals (•OH) system played a significant role in degradation of DC13 and the LC-MS result suggested that DC13 was degraded into inorganic small molecules by •OH radicals generated from the corrosion of Fe0. The experimental results indicated that the nanoscale Fe0/Cu0 could be used as a potential material to remove DC13 because of its remarkable degradability.