Transport and retention of nanoplastic particles in saturated columns packed with iron oxyhydroxide-coated sand

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taotao Lu ◽  
Benjamin S. Gilfedder ◽  
Sven Frei
Keyword(s):  
Porous Media ◽  
Surface Charge ◽  
Energy Barrier ◽  
Dlvo Theory ◽  
Breakthrough Curves ◽  
Solution Chemistry ◽  
Iron Oxyhydroxide ◽  
Charge Heterogeneity ◽  
Sand Surface ◽  
Coated Sand

<p>With the increasing use of nanoplastic products in our daily life, these particles will invariably enter into the subsurface environment. It is, therefore, vital to understand the transport and retention of nanoplastic particles in groundwater systems. Surface charge heterogeneity is one of the basic chemical-physical characteristics of aquifer materials, but little research has been conducted on this topic. This study aimed to understand how the interaction between the porous media, solution chemistry, and NP surface charge influences the transport and retention of PS-NPs in the subsurface. 25 mg/L polystyrene nanoplastic particles (PS-NPs) were injected into columns packed with iron oxyhydroxide-coated sand. In addition, factors such as the content of iron oxyhydroxide-coated sand (λ), pH, ionic strength (IS), and cation valence were systematically studied. DLVO theory was used to evaluate the interactions between PS-NP and the porous media. By comparing the breakthrough curves (BTCs) of PS-NPs, it was clear that all these variables exerted a significant influence on the mobility of PS-NPs in the columns. These effects could be explained by the following: Firstly, by applying the DLVO theory, it was possible to model the electrostatic interaction between quartz sand and PS-NPs. For instance, at different IS (NaCl), the maximum energy barrier (<em>Φ</em><sub>max</sub>) decreased with an increase in IS, which meant PS-NPs could more easily overcome the energy barrier to deposited on the sand surface at higher IS. Secondly, the positively charged iron oxyhydroxide coating provided additional favorable deposition sites for negatively charged PS-NPs. However, when the pH of the solution exceeded the iron oxyhydroxide pH<sub>pzc</sub> (~pH 9), the iron coating became negative and increased the mobility of PS-NPs. Finally, bridging agents, such as Ca<sup>2+</sup> and Ba<sup>2+</sup>, resulted in the significant deposition of PS-NPs on the sand due to the bridging effect connecting the porous media and PS-NPs through the O-containing functional groups on both plastic and mineral surfaces. This study provides a better understanding of how the charge heterogeneity on aquifer materials and groundwater hydrochemistry affect the transport of PS-NPs in aquifers.</p>

Different Surface Charged Plastic Particles Have Different Cotransport Behaviors with Kaolinite Particles in Porous Media

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meng Li ◽  
Lei He ◽  
Xiangwei Zhang ◽  
Haifeng Rong ◽  
Meiping Tong
Keyword(s):  
Porous Media ◽  
Ionic Strength ◽  
Surface Charge ◽  
Fate And Transport ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Charge Heterogeneity ◽  
Clay Particles ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Ubiquitous Presence ◽  
Positively Charged

<p>The wide utilization of plastic related products leads to the ubiquitous presence of plastic particles in natural environments. Plastic particles could interact with kaolinite (one type of typical clay particles abundant in environment) and form plastic-kaolinite heteroaggregates. The fate and transport of both plastic particles and kaolinite particles thus might be altered. The cotransport and deposition behaviors of micron-sized plastic particles (MPs) with different surface charge (both negative and positive surface charge) with kaolinite in porous media in both 5 and 25 mM NaCl solutions were investigated in present study. Both types of MPs (negatively charged carboxylate-modified MPs (CMPs) and positively charged amine-modified MPs (AMPs)) formed heteroaggregates with kaolinite particles under both solution conditions examined, however, CMPs and AMPs exhibited different cotransport behaviors with kaolinite. Specifically, the transport of both CMPs and kaolinite was increased under both ionic strength conditions when kaolinite and CMPs were copresent in suspensions. While, when kaolinite and positively charged AMPs were copresent in suspensions, negligible transport of both kaolinite and AMPs were observed under examined salt solution conditions. The competition deposition sites by kaolinite (the portion suspending in solution) with CMPs-kaolinite heteroaggregates led to the increased transport both CMPs and kaolinite when both types of colloids were copresent. In contrast, the formation of larger sized AMPs-kaolinite heteroaggregates with surface charge heterogeneity led to the negligible transport of both kaolinite and AMPs when they were copresent in suspensions. The results of this study show that when plastic particles and kaolinite particles are copresent in natural environments, their interaction with each other will affect their transport behaviors in porous media. The alteration in the transport of MPs or kaolinite (either increased or decreased transport) is highly correlated with the surface charge of MPs.</p>

Effects of solution chemistry and humic acid on the transport of polystyrene microplastics in manganese oxides coated sand

2021 ◽  
Vol 413 ◽  
pp. 125410
Author(s):  
Miaomiao Tan ◽  
Longfei Liu ◽  
Minggu Zhang ◽  
Yanli Liu ◽  
Chengliang Li
Keyword(s):  
Humic Acid ◽  
Manganese Oxides ◽  
Solution Chemistry ◽  
Coated Sand

Estimation of the fluid-fluid interfacial area using kinetic interface sensitive tracers in dynamic porous media experiments

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandru Tatomir ◽  
Huhao Gao ◽  
Hiwa Abdullah ◽  
Martin Sauter
Keyword(s):  
Porous Medium ◽  
Porous Media ◽  
Two Phase Flow ◽  
Organic Liquid ◽  
Column Experiment ◽  
Interfacial Area ◽  
Breakthrough Curves ◽  
Water Soluble ◽  
Phase Flow ◽  
Two Phase

<p>Fluid-fluid interfacial area (IFA) in a two-phase flow in porous media is an important parameter for many geoscientific applications involving mass- and energy-transfer processes between the fluid-phases. Schaffer et al. (2013) introduced a new category of reactive tracers termed kinetically interface sensitive (KIS) tracers, able to quantify the size of the fluid-fluid IFA. In our previous experiments (Tatomir et al., 2018) we have demonstrated the application of the KIS tracers in a highly-controlled column experiment filled with a well-characterized porous medium consisting of well-sorted, spherical glass beads.</p><p>In this work we investigate several types of glass-bead materials and natural sands to quantitatively characterize the influence of the porous-medium grain-, pore-size and texture on the mobile interfacial area between an organic liquid and water. The fluid-fluid interfacial area is determined by interpretation of the breakthrough curves (BTCs) of the reaction product of the KIS tracer. When the tracer which is dissolved in the non-wetting phase meets the water, an irreversible hydrolysis process begins leading to the formation of two water-soluble products. For the experiments we use a peristaltic pump and a high precision injection pump to control the injection rate of the organic liquid and tracer.</p><p>A Darcy-scale numerical model is used to simulate the immiscible displacement process coupled with the reactive tracer transport across the fluid-fluid interface. The results show that the current reactive transport model is not always capable to reproduce the breakthrough curves of tracer experiments and that a new theoretical framework may be required.</p><p>Investigations of the role of solid surface area of the grains show that the grain surface roughness has an important influence on the IFA. . Furthermore, a linear relationship between the mobile capillary associated IFA and the inverse mean grain diameter can be established. The results are compared with the data collected from literature measured with high resolution microtomography and partitioning tracer methods. The capillary associated IFA values are consistently smaller because KIS tracers measure the mobile part of the interface. Through this study the applicability range of the KIS tracers is considerably expanded and the confidence in the robustness of the method is improved.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Schaffer M, Maier F, Licha T, Sauter M (2013) A new generation of tracers for the characterization of interfacial areas during supercritical carbon dioxide injections into deep saline aquifers: Kinetic interface-sensitive tracers (KIS tracer). International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 14:200–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2013.01.020</p><p>Tatomir A, Vriendt KD, Zhou D, et al (2018) Kinetic Interface Sensitive Tracers: Experimental Validation in a Two-Phase Flow Column Experiment. A Proof of Concept. Water Resources Research 54:10,223-10,241. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR022621</p>

scholarly journals Review on the Macro-Transport Processes Theory for Irregular Pores able to Perform Catalytic Reactions

Catalysts ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iván Santamaría-Holek ◽  
Saúl Hernández ◽  
Consuelo García-Alcántara ◽  
Aldo Ledesma-Durán
Keyword(s):  
Porous Media ◽  
Diffusion Coefficients ◽  
Mass Conservation ◽  
Breakthrough Curves ◽  
Transport Processes ◽  
Catalytic Reactions ◽  
Irregular Domains ◽  
Surface Mass ◽  
Physicochemical Basis ◽  
Mass Uptake

We review and generalize a recent theoretical framework that provides a sound physicochemical basis to describe how volume and surface diffusion are affected by adsorption and desorption processes, as well as by catalytic conversion within the space defined by the irregular geometry of the pores in a material. The theory is based on two single-dimensional mass conservation equations for irregular domains deduced for the volumetric (bulk) and surface mass concentrations. It offers a powerful tool for analyzing and modeling mass transport across porous media like zeolites or artificially build materials, since it establishes how the microscopic quantities that refer to the internal details of the geometry, the flow and the interactions within the irregular pore can be translated into macroscopic variables that are currently measured in experiments. The use of the theory in mass uptake experiments is explained in terms of breakthrough curves and effective mass diffusion coefficients which are explicitly related to the internal geometry of the pores.

scholarly journals Role of solution chemistry in the retention and release of graphene oxide nanomaterials in uncoated and iron oxide-coated sand

2017 ◽  
Vol 579 ◽  
pp. 776-785 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dengjun Wang ◽  
Chongyang Shen ◽  
Yan Jin ◽  
Chunming Su ◽  
Lingyang Chu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Graphene Oxide ◽  
Iron Oxide ◽  
Solution Chemistry ◽  
Coated Sand

Microbial dispersal throgh dead-end cavities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Scheidweiler ◽  
Ankur Deep Bordoloi ◽  
Pietro de Anna
Keyword(s):  
Porous Media ◽  
Time Lapse ◽  
Breakthrough Curves ◽  
Bacterial Cells ◽  
Dispersal Patterns ◽  
Microbial Life ◽  
Sedimentary Environments ◽  
Escherichia Coli Cells ◽  
Dead End

<p>Predicting dispersal patterns is important to understand microbial life in porous media as soils and sedimentary environments. We studied active and passive dispersal of bacterial cells in porous media characterized by two main pore features: fast channels and dead-end cavities. We combined experiments with microfluidic devices and time-lapse microscopy to track individual bacterial trajectories and measure the breakthrough curves and pore scale bacterial abundance. Escherichia coli cells dispersed more efficiently than the non-motile mutants showing a different retention in the dead-end pores. Our findings highlight the role of diffusion dominated dead-end pores on the dispersal of microorganisms in porous media.</p>

Pore-scale Mixing and the Evolution from Anomalous to Normal Hydrodynamic Dispersion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Dentz ◽  
Alexandre Puyguiraud ◽  
Philippe Gouze
Keyword(s):  
Porous Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Molecular Diffusion ◽  
Pore Space ◽  
Breakthrough Curves ◽  
Heterogeneous Porous Media ◽  
Hydrodynamic Dispersion ◽  
Pore Scale ◽  
Sandstone Sample ◽  
Flow Variability

<p>Transport of dissolved substances through porous media is determined by the complexity of the pore space and diffusive mass transfer within and between pores. The interplay of diffusive pore-scale mixing and spatial flow variability are key for the understanding of transport and reaction phenomena in porous media. We study the interplay of pore-scale mixing and network-scale advection through heterogeneous porous media, and its role for the evolution and asymptotic behavior of hydrodynamic dispersion. In a Lagrangian framework, we identify three fundamental mechanisms of pore-scale mixing that determine large scale particle motion: (i) The smoothing of intra-pore velocity contrasts, (ii) the increase of the tortuosity of particle paths, and (iii) the setting of a maximum time for particle transitions. Based on these mechanisms, we derive an upscaled approach that predicts anomalous and normal hydrodynamic dispersion based on the characteristic pore length, Eulerian velocity distribution and Péclet number. The theoretical developments are supported and validated by direct numerical flow and transport simulations in a three-dimensional digitized Berea sandstone sample obtained using X-Ray microtomography. Solute breakthrough curves, are characterized by an intermediate power-law behavior and exponential cut-off, which reflect pore-scale velocity variability and intra-pore solute mixing. Similarly, dispersion evolves from molecular diffusion at early times to asymptotic hydrodynamics dispersion via an intermediate superdiffusive regime. The theory captures the full evolution form anomalous to normal transport behavior at different Péclet numbers as well as the Péclet-dependence of asymptotic dispersion. It sheds light on hydrodynamic dispersion behaviors as a consequence of the interaction between pore-scale mixing and Eulerian flow variability. </p>

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