APPLICATIONS OF LASER TECHNOLOGY AND NANOPARTICLES FOR SOIL REMEDIATION BY HEAVY METALS REMOVAL

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Prof. Dr., Agric. Eng. Dep., Fac. of Agric., Cairo Univ., Egypt.

2 Assoc. Prof., Inst. of Laser Enhanced Sc. (NILES), Cairo Univ., Egypt.

3 Assist. Lec., . Inst. of Laser Enhanced Sc. (NILES), Cairo Univ., Egypt.

Abstract

Soil is the basic natural resource needed for more than 95 % of the global food and fiber production; thus it represents a basic requisite for life on earth. So, soil pollution attracts the attention of the researchers to reduce soil pollution. As a result of the irrigation by wastewaters and the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the amount of heavy metals in the soil exceeds the maximum permissible limits. In the current investigation, the removal of heavy metals from soil layers (0-15, 15-30 and 30-45 cm) in soil columns, by iron nanoparticles (Fe NPs) and iron nanoparticles deposit on the surface of silica nanoparticles (SiO2/Fe NPs), has been studied. Fe NPs were prepared by borohydride reduction method and irradiated with 308 nm excimer laser pulses. The results indicated that the following points: 1) The maximum absorption of Fe NPs irradiated with 308 nm excimer laser pulses (50, 75 and 100 thousand pulses [tp]); found to be increased as the number of pulses increased, due to increasing of the number of particles and size reduction. The TEM photography gives good criteria about the size reduction process; 2) All sizes of Fe NPs and SiO2/Fe NPs proved to be a good technique for soil remediation in the case of Pb, Cd and Cu; 3) Removal efficiency of heavy metals was found to vary between soil layers (0-15 , 15-30 and 30-45 cm); by 84.62, 69.80 and 61.04%, for Pb, 98.05, 83.76 and 62.14% for Cd and 67.58, 63.76 and 59.33% for Cu, respectively, with treated 50 tp.  This found to be decrease as increase of clay and organic matter content; and 4) The removal process was observed to much less efficient in the case of Ni found in the soil layers (0-15 , 15-30 and 30-45 cm) were 32.81, 39.83 and 8.53% respectively, with treated 50 tp. 

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References

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Misr Journal of Agricultural Engineering
Volume 27, Issue 1
January 2010
Pages 400-425

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