Oxidant production from corrosion of nano- and microparticulate zero-valent iron in the presence of oxygen: a comparative study.

In aqueous solution, zero-valent iron (ZVI, Fe(0)) is known to activate oxygen (O2) into reactive oxidants such as hydroxyl radical and ferryl ion capable of oxidizing contaminants. However, little is known about the effect of the particle size of ZVI on the yield of reactive oxidants. In this study, the production of reactive oxidants from nanoparticulate and microparticulate ZVIs (denoted as nZVI and mZVI, respectively) was comparatively investigated in the presence of O2 and EDTA.