Dechlorination of Trichloroethylene in Water by Nanoscale Bimetallic Fe/Pd Particles

This paper examines the potential for using the microemulsion method synthesized nanoscale Pd/Fe bimetallic particles to reduce trichloroethene (TCE, C₂HCl₃) in water. The water-in-oil (W/O) microemulsion system was made up of iso- octane, cetyltrimethyl-ammonium bromide (CTAB), butanol and water, and was characterized by measuring the conductivity of the solution. The changes of water content in the W/O microemulsion was observed by visual inspection and conductivity measurement. And then the information was used in developing a phase diagram of this microemulsion. Next we used the microemulsion system as reactor to synthesize Fe/Pd nanoscale particles, and the nanoparticles which synthesized using the CTAB/iso-octane/n-butanol microemulsion were characterized by using the transmission electron microscope (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDX). Results showed that the average diameter of synthesized palladium/iron bimetallic nanoparticles using the microemulsion method was less than 80 nm, which was much smaller than the particles produced by the solution method. Then the performance of the palladium/iron bimetallic nanoscale particles produced in the laboratory was studied by dechlorinating TCE, a dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) and listed as a priority pollutant by the US EPA and compared with nano iron particles.