Degradation of aqueous carbon tetrachloride by nanoscale zerovalent copper on a cation resin

Nanoscale zerovalent copper supported on a cation resin was successfully synthesized to enhance the removal of carbon tetrachloride (CCl 4) from contaminated water. The use of the cation resin as a support prevents the reduction of surface area due to agglomeration of nanoscale zerovalent copper particles. Moreover, the cation resin recycles the copper ions resulting from the reaction between CCl 4 and Cu 0 by simultaneous ion exchange. The decline in the amount of CCl 4 in aqueous solution results from the combined effects of degradation by nanoscale zerovalent copper and sorption by the cation resin; thus the amount of CCl 4 both in aqueous solution and sorbed onto the resin were measured. The pseudo-first-order rate constant normalized by the surface-area and the mass concentration of nanoscale zerovalent copper ( k SA) was 2.1 ± 0.1 × 10 −2 l h −1 m −2, approximately twenty times that of commercial powdered zerovalent copper (0.04 mm). Due to the exchange between Cu 2+ and the strongly acidic ions (H + or Na +), the pH was between 3 and 4 in unbuffered solution and Cu 2+ at the concentration of less than 0.1 mg l −1 was measured after the dechlorination reaction. In the above-ground application, resin as a support would facilitate the development of a process that could be designed for convenient emplacement and regeneration of porous reductive medium.