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The role of black carbon as a catalyst for environmental redox transformation

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Abstract

Black carbon (BC) is an important class of geosorbents that control the fate and transport of organic pollutants in soil and sediment. We previously demonstrated a new role of BC as an electron transfer mediator in the abiotic reduction of nitroaromatic and nitramine compounds by Oh and Chiu (Environ Sci Technol 43:6983–6988, 2009). We proposed that BC can catalyze the reduction of nitro compounds because it contains microscopic graphitic (graphene) domains, which facilitate both sorption and electron transfer. In this study, we assessed the ability of different types of BC—graphite, activated carbon, and diesel soot—to mediate the reduction of 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT) and 2,4-dibromophenol (DBP) by H2S. All three types of BC enhanced DNT and DBP reduction. H2S supported BC-mediated reduction, as was observed previously with a thiol reductant. The results suggest that BC may influence the fate of organic pollutants in reducing subsurface environments through redox transformation in addition to sorption.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2009-0064688).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, 680-749, South Korea

    Seok-Young Oh & Jong-Gil Son

  2. Department of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, 680-749, South Korea

    Ock-Taeck Lim

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 19716, USA

    Pei C. Chiu

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  1. Seok-Young Oh
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  2. Jong-Gil Son
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  3. Ock-Taeck Lim
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  4. Pei C. Chiu
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Correspondence to Pei C. Chiu.

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Oh, SY., Son, JG., Lim, OT. et al. The role of black carbon as a catalyst for environmental redox transformation. Environ Geochem Health 34 (Suppl 1), 105–113 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-011-9416-0

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