Remediation of polybrominated diphenyl ethers contaminated soil in the e-waste disposal site by ball milling modified zero valent iron activated persulfate.

Hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs) in e-waste disposal sites are difficult to remove effectively. There is little reported about zero valent iron (ZVI) coupled with persulfate (PS) to achieve the removal of decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE209) from soil. In this work, we have prepared the flake submicron zero valent iron by ball milling with boric acid (B-mZVI) at a low cost. Sacrifice experiments results showed that 56.6% of BDE209 was removed in 72 h with PS/B-mZVI, which was 2.12 times than that of micron zero valent iron (mZVI). The morphology, crystal form, atomic valence, composition, and functional group of B-mZVI were determined by SEM, XRD, XPS, and FTIR, and the results indicated that the oxide layer on the surface of mZVI is replaced by borides. The results of EPR indicated that hydroxyl radical and sulfate radical played the dominant role in the degradation of BDE209. The degradation products of BDE209 were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), accordingly, the possible degradation pathway was further proposed. The research suggested that ball milling with mZVI and boric acid is a low-cost means of preparing highly active zero valent iron materials. And the mZVI has promising applications in improving the activation efficiency of PS and enhancing the removal of the contaminant.