Diversity of Contaminant Reduction Reactions by Zero-Valent Iron: Role of the Reductate

The reactions of 8 model contaminants with 9 types of granular Fe(0) were studied in batch experiments using consistent experimental conditions. The model contaminants (herein referred to as reductates because they were reduced by the iron metal) included cations (Cu2+), anions (CrO42-; NO3-; and 5,5,7,7-indigotetrasulfonate), and neutral species (2-chloroacetophenone; 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene; carbon tetrachloride; and trichloroethene). The diversity of this range of reductates offers a uniquely broad perspective on the reactivity of Fe(0). Rate constants for disappearance of the reductates vary over as much as 4 orders of magnitude for particular reductates (due to differences in the 9 types of iron) but differences among the reductates were even larger, ranging over almost 7 orders of magnitude. Various ways of summarizing the data all suggest that relative reactivities with Fe(0) varies in the order: Cu2, I4S > 2CAP, TNT > CT, Cr6 > TCE > NO3. Although the reductate h as the largest effect on disappearance kinetics, more subtle differences in reactivity due to the type of Fe(0) suggests that removal of Cr6 and NO3 (the inorganic anions) involves adsorption to oxides on the Fe(0), whereas the disappearance kinetics of all other types of reductants is favored by reduction on comparatively oxide-free metal. Correlation analysis of the disappearance rate constants using descriptors of the reductates calculated by molecular modeling (energies of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals, LUMO, highest occupied molecular orbitals, HOMO, and HOMO-LUMO gaps) showed that reactivities generally increase with decreasing ELUMO and increasing EGAP (and, therefore, increasing chemical hardness h).