Progress in Research of Heavy Metal Ion Behavior in Environment

Recently, the scientists in Applied Plasma Division, ASIPP, achieved great progress in the research work about the species and microstructures of heavy metal ions in the natural environmental. Part of their research work is selected as Highlight in the homepage of American Chemistry Society.

　  The researchers used extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) technique to study the microstructures and interaction mechanism of heavy metal ions with clay minerals as different experimental conditions such as pH, contact time, temperature and humic substances. The results indicate that the species and microstructures of heavy metal ions are changeable with increasing contact time at molecular level, although the amount of heavy metal ions adsorbed on clay minerals does not change with increasing contact time from the batch investigations. The species and interaction mechanisms of heavy metal ions with clay minerals are also affected by other experimental conditions. The results are much more important to understand the physicochemical behavior of heavy metal ions in the natural environment. The relative results are published in international journals such as Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta 2011, 75, 6520-6534; Environmental Science & Technology. 2011, 45, 7718-7726; Dalton. Transactions 2011, 40, 10953-10960.

　  This research works were supported by 973 projects from Ministry of Science and Technology of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, and Chinese Academy of Sciences. (Sheng Guodong Reports)

Figure 1. The species and interaction mechanisms of heavy metal ion (Ni) with clay minerals at different experimental conditions.|

Figure 2. Highlight of research work selected by ACS publications after the results published in EST.