Degradation of trichloroethylene and dichlorobiphenyls by iron-based bimetallic nanoparticles

Bimetallic nanoparticles of Ni/Fe and Pd/Fe were used to study the degradation of trichloroethylene (TCE) at room temperature. The activity for different iron-based nanoparticles with nickel as the catalytic dopant was analyzed using the iron mass-normalized hydrogen generation rate. Degradation kinetics in terms of surface area-normalized rate constant were observed to have a strong correlation with the hydrogen generated by iron oxidation. A sorption study was conducted, and a mathematical model was derived that incorporates the reaction and Langmuirian-type sorption terms to estimate the intrinsic rate constant and rate-limiting step in the degradation process, assuming negligible mass transfer resistance of TCE to the solid particles phase. A longevity study through repeated cycle experiments was conducted to analyze the effect of activity loss on the reaction mechanistic pathway, and the results showed that the attenuation in the nanoparticles activity did not adversely affect the reaction mechanisms in generating gaseous products, such as ethylene and ethane.