Deposition of Fe–Ni nanoparticles on Al2O3 for dechlorination of chloroform and trichloroethylene

This research proposes an efficient method for depositing Fe–Ni nanoparticles on Al2O3 microparticles to decompose containments in ground water, such as chloroform and trichloroethylene. The Fe–Ni nanoparticles can be deposited onto the surface of Al2O3 microparticles by electroless plating technique. The reasons why the Fe–Ni nanoparticles would be deposited on the surface of Al2O3 microparticles is to avoid the agglomeration of Fe–Ni nanoparticles due to their surface effect and magnetic property. The results show that the sizes of Fe–Ni particles on Al2O3 particles are between several and several hundreds of nanometers, the contents of Fe and Ni in Fe–Ni nanoparticles can be adjusted from 8 to 60 at.% for Fe and 40 to 92 at.% for Ni, the specific surface area of Fe–Ni nanoparticles can reach to 117 m2/g, and the reaction mechanism of dechlorination of chloroform of 2 mg/L by Fe–Ni/Al2O3 particles of 5 g/L appears to be pseudo first order with a half life of 0.7 h and the half life is 0.25 h for the dechlorination of trichloroethylene of 2 mg/L.