Dechlorination of pentachlorophenol using nanoscale Fe/Ni particles: Role of nano-Ni and its size effect

The dechlorination of pentachlorophenol (PCP) using nano-Fe together with different size of nano-Ni particles (30, 50, 80, and 100nm) was investigated. The results indicated that nano-Ni particles could improve the dechlorination of PCP. The X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analysis suggested that nano-Ni particles might serve as catalyst for dechlorination. The decrease of nano-Ni particle size resulted in the increase of PCP transformation and chloride release. The accumulation of several intermediates, such as phenol, 2-chlorophenol, 3-chlorophenol and 4-chlorophenol indicated the probable changes of the reaction pathway for PCP dechlorination. The corrosion products of Fe were detected using XRD analysis. In the system without nano-Ni particles, they were lepidocrocite (γ-FeOOH) and magnetite (Fe₃O₄) and/or maghemite (Fe₂O₃), however, in the systems with nano-Ni particles, they were still magnetite/maghemite but no lepidocrocite existed. The size of nano-Ni particles might affect the crystallization of corrosion products of Fe, but did not affect the species distribution of corrosion products.