The investigation of the binding ability between sodium dodecyl sulfate and Cu (II) in urban stormwater runoff

Abstract

The simultaneous presence of heavy metals and surfactants in runoff induces complexation and ecological harm during migration. However, interactions between these pollutants are often overlooked in past studies. Thus, investigating heavy metal-surfactant complexes in runoff is imperative. In this work, Cu (II) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) were selected to investigate the interaction between heavy metals and surfactants due to the higher detected frequency in runoff. Through 1H NMR and FTIR observation of hydrogen atom nuclear displacement and functional group displacement of SDS, the change of SDS and Cu (II) complexation was obtained, and then the complexation form of Cu (II) and SDS was verified. The results showed that solution pH values and ionic strength had significant effects on the complexation of Cu (II). When the pH values increase from 3.0 to 6.0, the complexation efficiency of SDS with Cu (II) increased by 12.12% at low concentration of SDS, which may be attributed to the excessive protonation in the aqueous solution at acidic condition. The increase of ionic strength would inhibit the complexation reaction efficiency by 19.57% and finally reached the platform with concentration of NaNO3 was 0.10 mmol/L, which was mainly due to the competitive relationship between Na (I) and Cu (II). As a general filtering material in stormwater treatment measures, natural zeolite could affect the interaction between SDS and Cu (II) greatly. After the addition of SDS, the content of free Cu (II) in the zeolite-SDS-Cu (II) three-phase mixed system was significantly reduced, indicating that SDS had a positive effect on the removal of Cu (II) from runoff. This study is of great significance for investigating the migration and transformation mechanism of SDS and Cu (II) in the future and studying the control technology of storm runoff pollution.