A macroscopic and microscopic study of the role of iron oxides in the removal of contaminants

Abstract

Chemical compounds originated by anthropogenic activities reach the environment and interact with the mineral and organic fractions of the soil, where they suffer different reactions which will affect their final destination in the environment. In order to understand and predict the behaviour of these contaminants, experimental data is needed. However, it would be difficult to obtain due to the high number of compounds that are released to the environment. A possible alternative consists on developing models which will allow to stablish a general relationship among the molecular properties of the different compounds and the interaction with the reactive fractions of the natural environment. For this purpose, macro- and microscopic information is needed. In the current work, the reactivity of common iron nanominerals in soils would be studied along with the interactions among these iron oxides and the natural organic matter present in the environment. The experimental study of the reactivity of ionic contaminants under different experimental conditions will allow to obtain the necessary information to analyse the contributions of the different fractions on the inmobilization of pollutants in the environment.