Analyzing The Mobility Of Nanoparticles In Porous Media

Nanotechnology is becoming a fast growing industry and accompanied by this growth is the use of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) for research and in many household products. With the increasing production of consumer products manufactured containing ENPs the opportunity for exposure to the environment also has increased. There is therefore an increased need for a more thorough understanding of ENP mobility in the soil. In this study we modeled ENP transport through the soil with porous media and found that factors that affect ENPs mobility in the soil include concentration and species of salt in groundwater, soil types and ENPs’ zeta potential, concentration and size. In the instance of nZVI, unlike CNT, the higher the concentration that is injected into the column the higher concentration that will be present in effluent. In the ZnO and nZVI comparative study where both ENPs concentrations were 0.2 g/L, ZnO was able to exit the porous media at a faster rate indicating that nZVI has much more interaction with the porous media as opposed to ZnO. The breakthrough times for ZnO and nZVI were 120 min and 170 min respectively. Concentration of ZnO at breakthrough point was also found to be slightly higher (0.5%) than that of nZVI.