Yu-Lun Fang1, Kimberly N. Heck1, Xianhuai Huang2, Qilin Li2, Pedro J. J. Alvarez2, and Michael S. Wong1. (1) Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Rice University, 6100 Main St, MS-362, Houston, TX 77005, (2) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, 6100 Main St, MS-318, Houston, TX 77005
Trichloroethene (TCE) is one of the most common hazardous organic contaminants found in groundwater. Its use as a solvent in the automotive, metals, electronic and other industries has led to prevalence in our environment. TCE has been linked to liver damage, impaired pregnancies, and cancers in humans. Compared to conventional physical displacement methods of air-stripping and carbon adsorption, remediation through the catalytic breakdown of TCE molecules is a more effective and desirable approach. In our previous work, palladium-on-gold nanoparticles (Pd/Au NPs, 4 nm or 20 nm) has been shown to catalyze the TCE hydrodechlorination (TCE HDC) in water, at room temperature, and in the presence of hydrogen, with the most active Pd/Au NPs (k = 1900 L/gPd/min) found to be >70 times more active than conventional Pd supported on alumina (k = 26 L/gPd/min) on a per-Pd atom basis. Here, we improve the potential of this Pd/Au NP catalyst for groundwater remediation by immobilizing the NPs on a solid support. Immobilization is an important issue of sustainable nanomaterials in water treatment. Once the active NPs can be immobilized on a solid support, long-term continuous systems become feasible. To achieve NP immobilization, we used ion exchange resin (IER) beads as the solid support. IER is an insoluble crosslinked polystyrene matrix with surface sites which can easily trap and release ions in a process called ion-exchange. We present two strategies for immobilization: (1) direct NP immobilization, and (2) direct synthesis of NPs onto IER's. Preliminary results indicate one type of Pd/Au/IER particles can have activities as high as 480 L/gPd/min.