Influence of Soil Colloids on Ni Adsorption and Transport in the Saturated Porous Media: Effects of pH, Ionic Strength, and Humic Acid

Abstract

Natural colloids are widely distributed in soil and groundwater. Due to their specific characteristics, colloids can actively involve various transport contaminants, resulting in a complicated fate and the transport of heavy metals to the environment. This study investigated the effects of soil colloids on the adsorption and transport of Ni2+ in saturated porous media under different conditions, including pH, ion strength (IS), and humic acid (HA), because these indexes are non-negligible in the fates of various organic or inorganic matters in the subsurface environment. The results indicate that Ni2+ adsorption by soil colloids slightly increased from 17% to 25% with the increase of pH from 5.5 to 7.5 at the IS of 30 mmol·L−1, whilst it significantly reduced from 55% to 17% with the increase of IS from 0 to 30 mmol·L−1 at a pH of 5.5. Both Langmuir and Freundlich models can fit the adsorption isotherms of Ni2+ on soil colloids and quartz sand. According to the column experiment, the presence of soil colloids increased the initial penetration rate, but could not increase the final transport efficiency of Ni2+ in the effluent. The presence of soil colloids has weakened the effect of IS on Ni2+ transport in the sand column. Moreover, this experiment implies that HA remarkably decreased the Ni2+ transport efficiency from 71.3% to 58.0% in the presence of soil colloids and that there was no significant difference in the HA effect on the Ni2+ transport in the absence of soil colloids.