Reductive dechlorination of trichloroethylene by polyvinylpyrrolidone stabilized nanoscale zerovalent iron particles with Ni.

We developed a novel stabilized nanoscale zerovalent iron (NZVI) particles with Ni using an electron conducting polymer, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), to selectively dechlorinate trichloroethylene (TCE) to non-toxic intermediates. The size of the PVP stabilized NZVI-Ni ((PVP-NZVI-Ni), average diameter: ∼20nm) is smaller than that of bare NZVI (50-80nm) due to the prevention of agglomeration of the resultant iron particles by PVP. PVP-NZVI-Ni showed a complete removal of TCE in 1h with superior dechlorination kinetics (k