Cap And Degrade: A Reactive Nanomaterial Barrier Also Serves As A Cleanup Tool

摘要

General Electric Co. discharged PCBs into New York's Hudson River for 3 decades, until the persistent organic chemicals were banned in the 1970s. Because of that chemical legacy, the company now must spend billions ofrndollars to dredge the river and remove tons of soil. The soil will be treated and disposed of in Texas, starting in the spring of 2009. But what if cleaning up these persistent pollutants could be done without dredging, which disrupts ecosystems and moves the contaminants elsewhere? A new lab-tested method published in ES&T (DOIrn10.1021/es8015815) presents a first step toward such a solution: a "reactive barrier" that contains nano-sized metal particles that sequester and break down PCBs in place.