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A new strategy using nanoscale zero-valent iron to simultaneously promote remediation and safe crop production in contaminated soil

Nature Nanotechnology volume 16, pages 197–205 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Novel versatile nanomaterials may facilitate strategies for simultaneous soil remediation and agricultural production, but a thorough and mechanistic assessment of efficacy and safety is needed. We have established a new soil remediation strategy using nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) coupled with safe rice production in paddy soil contaminated with pentachlorophenol (PCP). In comparison with rice cultivation in contaminated soil with 100 mg PCP per kg soil but without nZVI, the addition of 100 mg nZVI per kg soil increased grain yield by 47.1–55.0%, decreased grain PCP content by 83.6–86.2% and increased the soil PCP removal rate from 49.9 to 83.9–89.0%. The specific role of nZVI-derived root iron plaque formation in the safe production of rice has been elucidated, and the synergistic effect of nZVI treatment and rice cultivation identified in the nZVI-facilitated rhizosphere microbial degradation of PCP. This work opens a new strategy for the application of nanomaterials in soil remediation that could simultaneously enable safe crop production in contaminated lands.

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Fig. 1: Effects of iron species on soil remediation and crop production.
Fig. 2: Characteristics of iron plaque.
Fig. 3: Influences of nZVI100 on the environmental fate of PCP and microbial communities.
Fig. 4: Effects of nZVI on PCP bioreduction process in soil extracts.
Fig. 5: Strategy using nZVI for simultaneous soil remediation and safe crop production.

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Date availability

The data that support the findings of this study and the code for PARAFAC modelling with MATLAB 7.0 are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The raw files for the 16S rDNA extracted from different soil samples can be accessed from the NCBI Sequence Read Archive (SRA) platform through ID SRP260156. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFA0207003), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21525728 and 21621005) and Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (LD21B070001). J.C.W. acknowledges USDA NIFA Hatch (CONH00147).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Yangzhi Liu, Ting Wu & Daohui Lin

  2. Department of Analytical Chemistry, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, CT, USA

    Jason C. White

  3. Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Organic Pollution Process and Control, Hangzhou, China

    Daohui Lin

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  1. Yangzhi Liu
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Contributions

D.L. and Y.L. designed the experiments. Y.L. and T.W. performed the experiments. Y.L. performed the data analyses and wrote the paper. D.L. and J.C.W. revised the paper. D.L. acquired the funding.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daohui Lin.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Peer review information Nature Nanotechnology thanks Adeyemi Adeleye, Xiaohong Guan and Navid Saleh for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Distribution of iron in rice.

Iron contents of leaf (a), stem (b), and root (c) and the iron plaque contents (d) of rice samples cultivated for 30, 70, and 140 days under the treatments of different doses of nZVI100; (e) the iron contents of harvested grains in the PCP-contaminated soil (100 mg/kg) after treatment with different doses of nZVI100 for 140 days. Error bars represent standard deviations for the corresponding mean values (n = 3). Different letters for a group of data indicate significant difference (P < 0.05).

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 2 Biomass and leaf chlorophyll−a contents of rice.

(a) Leaf, (b) stem, and (c) root biomass and (d) leaf chlorophyll−a contents of rice samples after cultivation in PCP-contaminated soil (100 mg/kg) with different doses of nZVI100 for 30, 70, and 140 days. Error bars represent standard deviations for the corresponding mean values (n = 3). Different letters for a group of data indicate significant difference (P < 0.05).

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 3 Distribution of CPs in rice and XRD spectra of the iron plaque.

CPs content of (a) leaf, (b) stem, and (c) root after cultivation in the contaminated soil with 100 mg (375 μmol) PCP per kg soil for different time periods with different doses of nZVI100; (d) XRD spectra of the iron plaque on rice root after cultivating in PCP-contaminated soil (100 mg per kg soil) with 100 mg nZVI100 per kg soil for 30 days. Error bars represent standard deviations for the corresponding mean values (n = 3).

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 4 CPs contents of rice seeds and rice tissues.

Changes in CPs contents of (a) rice seeds and (b) rice tissues against the dose of nZVI100 in the contaminated soil with 100 mg (375 μmol) PCP per kg soil.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 5 Dynamic changes of iron species.

Contents of (a) Fe3+ and (b) Fe2+ in contaminated soil (100 mg PCP per kg soil) with different doses of nZVI100 at 30, 70, and 140 days. Error bars in panels a, and b represent standard deviations for the corresponding mean values (n = 3).

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 6 Spectral characteristics of C1, C2, and C3 fractions identified by EEMs-PARAFAC.

(a-c) Spectral characteristics of C1, C2, and C3 fractions identified by EEMs-PARAFAC for all treatments of the sterilized and unsterilized soil extracts after incubation for 15 days.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 7 characteristics of mZVI.

(a) TEM and (b) EDS characteristics of mZVI.

Source data

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–11, Tables 1–6, Texts 1–10 and refs. 1–14.

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Liu, Y., Wu, T., White, J.C. et al. A new strategy using nanoscale zero-valent iron to simultaneously promote remediation and safe crop production in contaminated soil. Nat. Nanotechnol. 16, 197–205 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-020-00803-1

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