Preparation and Characterization of the Activated Carbon-Nylon Beads: Novel Material for In Situ Microbe Sampler and Microcosm Experiment in Groundwater Environment

Abstract:

The organic pollution of groundwater is a widespread problem in the word. It is significant to study the microbial community especially related to organic contaminant biodegradation and their variation with groundwater environment parameters, so as to evaluate the biodegradability of the organic contaminants and then make a right decision for bioremediation. One of good ways for this study is to build a microcosm in groundwater containing target contaminant, where microbes especially relating to biodegradation will grow in the microcosm and be collected for analysis. This research aims to prepare a novel material for in situ microbe sampler and microcosm experiment in groundwater environment.

The novel material, namely, the activated carbon-nylon (AC-N) beads, was prepared using activated carbon and nylon as main raw materials. The material consists of 3-4mm diameter spherical beads (Fig.1A and Fig.2 A) which have an internal surface area greater than 500 m² g^-1. FT-IR spectra (Fig.3) indicated the composition of activated carbon and nylon due to the variation of the peaks at the near 1627 cm^-1and 1558 -1538 cm⁻¹ before and after complex reaction. The equilibrium adsorption capacity of benzene on the beads was 16.76 mg/g at the initial concentration of 100 mg/L. The adsorption kinetics was found to follow the pseudo-second-order kinetic model (Fig.4). The mechanism of the adsorption process was determined from the intraparticle diffusion model. Camera and SEM images (Fig.1 B and Fig.2 A and B) showed that the beads had an open and channel pore structures, the microbes might enter into and grow up in the beads (Fig.1 C and Fig.2 C). All these results showed that the AC-N beads could form the in situ microcosm of organic pollutants and microbes, which provided a promising prospect for assessing the biodegradability of the organic pollutants by intrinsic microbes in the groundwater.