Catalytic hydrodechlorination of 1,2-dichloroethane using copper nanoparticles under reduction conditions of sodium borohydride

1,2-Dichloroethane (1,2-DCA) is a raw material used for the manufacture of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) and therefore has very often been detected in the groundwater nearby the VCM manufacturing plant. Zero-valent iron (ZVI) is capable of degrading a wide array of highly chlorinated contaminants; however, the reactivity of ZVI towards 1,2-DCA is very low. In this study, zero-valent copper nanoparticles have been synthesized for effective dechlorination of 1,2-DCA under reduction conditions of sodium borohydride. Copper nanoparticles consisted of mainly metallic copper (Cu-0) with small amounts of cuprous oxide (Cu2O). They have surface areas of about 19.0 m(2) g(-1) and an average diameter of 15 nm. Batch experiments were conducted to test the effectiveness of copper nanoparticles for 1,2-DCA degradation using sodium borohydride as electron donors where the ORP was measured as -1100 mV. More than 80% of 1,2-DCA (30 mg L-1) was rapidly degraded within 2 h in the presence of both copper nanoparticles (2.5 g L-1) and borohydride (25 mM). No reduction of 1,2-DCA was observed when the system contained either copper nanoparticles alone or borohydride alone. The degradation intermediates included ethane and ethylene accounting for 79% and similar to 1.5% of the 1,2-DCA lost, respectively. Potential environmental applications can be achieved by immobilizing copper nanoparticles onto the surface of reducing metals to form a reactive bimetallic structure.