Deposition of Fe–Ni nanoparticles on Al2O3 for dechlorination of chloroform and trichloroethylene

Abstract This research proposes an efficient method for depositing Fe–Ni nanoparticles on Al 2 O 3 microparticles to decompose containments in ground water, such as chloroform and trichloroethylene. The Fe–Ni nanoparticles can be deposited onto the surface of Al 2 O 3 microparticles by electroless plating technique. The reasons why the Fe–Ni nanoparticles would be deposited on the surface of Al 2 O 3 microparticles is to avoid the agglomeration of Fe–Ni nanoparticles due to their surface effect and magnetic property. The results show that the sizes of Fe–Ni particles on Al 2 O 3 particles are between several and several hundreds of nanometers, the contents of Fe and Ni in Fe–Ni nanoparticles can be adjusted from 8 to 60 at.% for Fe and 40 to 92 at.% for Ni, the specific surface area of Fe–Ni nanoparticles can reach to 117 m 2 /g, and the reaction mechanism of dechlorination of chloroform of 2 mg/L by Fe–Ni/Al 2 O 3 particles of 5 g/L appears to be pseudo first order with a half life of 0.7 h and the half life is 0.25 h for the dechlorination of trichloroethylene of 2 mg/L.