[Influence of inorganic ions and humic acid on the removal of Pb(II) and Hg(II) in water by zero-valent iron].

The effects of Ca2+, Cl- and humic acid (HA) on the removal rates of Pb(II) and Hg(II) in water by zero-valent (ZVI) and the kinetic characteristics were studied, and the removal mechanism of Pb(II) and Hg(II) by ZVI were preliminarily investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results indicated that the removal mechanism of Pb(II) might mainly be attributed to the adsorption and co-precipitation of ZVI, while that of Hg(II) might mainly be attributed to the oxidation-reduction of ZVI. With the increase of Ca2+ concentration, the removal rates of Hg(II) and Pb(II) showed the trends of gradual increase and slight decrease, respectively. The Hg(II) removal increased with increasing Cl- concentration, whereas no obvious increase in Pb(II) removal was observed. The removal rates of Hg(II) and Pb(II) showed the trends of slow increase and slow decrease with increasing HA concentration, respectively. When Ca2+, Cl- and HA coexisted, the removal rates of Hg(II) and Pb(II) reached 99.71% and 97.95%, respectively. The removal processes of Pb(II) and Hg(II) could be described by pseudo first-order reaction kinetic equations when Ca2+, Cl- and HA existed alone and in combination. The removal rate constant of Pb(II) was the maxinum (0.024 0 min(-1)) when 5 mg x L(-1) HA existed alone, whereas that of Hg(II) was the maximum (0.0169 min(-1)) when 0.80 mmol x L(-1) Ca2+ existed alone.