Séminaire ISTerre

Retention potential of contaminants by (nano)magnetite in batch and microfluidic systems

mercredi 22 février 2023 - 10h00
EVGENIA MARIA PAPASLIOTI - ISTerre-Séminaire Post-doc (Café croissant à 9h45)
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The scientific community has greatly focused on finding innovative remediation techniques for the decontamination of drinking and waste water. (Nano)magnetite (Fe3O4) has been suggested to be a significant reductant for contaminants due to its ubiquity in the environment, and its great adsorption capacity and ability to retain metals on its surface owing to its high specific surface area. Its use has become an emerging technology for the treatment of contaminated land and water with a great potential to become an effective and low-cost alternative to conventional remediation techniques. So, this seminar gives me the opportunity to share my related research for the past two years under the framework of my Marie Curie postdoctoral (MSCA IF) project, during which I have studied the retention of contaminants by (nano)magnetite at both macro- and micro-scale. During the first part of my research, we have taken advantage of a concept of the circular economy, exploiting an existing waste from the steel industry that HYMAG’IN company has transformed into magnetite, to study the immobilisation of As, Sb, and U and provide new insights into a new ‘green’ route for the decontamination of drinking and wastewaters. The second part of my study was based on the idea that soil aggregates are systems ideal for the study of the (bio)geochemical reactions that control the mobility of the redox sensitive elements due to their small size and their spatial heterogeneity. Here we mimic those systems in a micro-scale format via the use of polymer aggregates (soil-inspired) and microfluidics to study time-dependent Sb reduction by nanomagnetite aggregates. Synchrotron X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) is applied for the first time to such experimental systems to shed light into the role of nanomagnetite aggregates into the immobilization of Sb, as a novel remediation strategy.

Equipe organisatrice : Organisation labo

Amphithéâtre Killian, Maison des Géosciences, 38400 Saint Martin d'Hères