Detailed insights in adsorption process of heavy metals on tire wear particles

Abstract

Road traffic induced tire wear particles (TWP) attracted widespread attention due to their potential environmental impact. Here, the adsorption process of heavy metals like Pb2+ and Cd2+ on tire wear particles produced by filing (TWP-f) is studied to elucidate the underlying kinetics and thermodynamics. This work includes voltammetric experiments to investigate the concentration and temperature dependency of the adsorption. The adsorption kinetics in buffer solution spiked with heavy metals follows a pseudo-second-order rate equation involving rate-controlling boundary layer adsorption and a side-by-side intraparticle diffusion process. Meanwhile, the adsorption tendencies under the studied conditions for TWP-f were Pb2+ > Cd2+. The equilibrium adsorption data were modulated by the Langmuir, Freundlich, and Dubinin-Radushkevich (DR) isotherms. Both the Freundlich and DR isotherms were found to be feasible for describing the adsorption on TWP-f. The adsorption energy obtained from the DR isotherm is 1.6 kJ mol−1 for Pb2+ and 2 kJ mol−1 for Cd2+, indicating physisorption as the dominating force. According to the Freundlich isotherm, multilayer adsorption is proposed. The thermodynamic parameters show that the adsorption of Pb2+ and Cd2+ is endergonic. Due to small Gibbs enthalpy values near the thermodynamic equilibrium, the adsorption process is mainly dependent on the ambient conditions. So, close-to-nature experiments were conducted to verify the received results. Therefore, tire and road wear particles including road sediments (TRWP+RS) were added to prefiltered freshwater samples of the river Freiberger Mulde (having naturally elevated trace element concentrations). The adsorption kinetics were investigated by ICP-MS/MS emphasizing the pseudo-second-order rate equation. Moreover, it is suggested that the tire wear particles in the TRWP+RS sample are majorly responsible for the adsorption of at least Cd2+.