Transport and retention of copper oxide nanoparticles under unfavorable deposition conditions caused by repulsive van der Waals force in saturated porous media

Abstract Currently, copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) have been widely used in industry, manufacturing and agriculture. The transport and retention of CuO NPs are vital to understanding the fate as well as the life cycle of CuO NPs in the environment. This study systematically investigates the transport and retention of CuO NPs in saturated porous media, and the experimental results were explained by the CFT and DLVO theory. The van der Waals force between CuO NPs and collector was repulsive, resulting in the unfavorable deposition condition. Column experiments were conducted with saturated quartz sand under environmentally relevant pH (6, 8, 9), ionic strength (IS, 1, 10, 50 mM), and humic acid (HA, 0.1–10 mg-C/mL). Experimental results show that the breakthrough curves (BCTs) were affected by different pH and IS. Under pH 6 and 9, the mobility of CuO NPs was enhanced by high IS while the mobility was inhibited by high IS under pH 8. The mobility of CuO NPs was enhanced by humic acid and the effect was best at 0.5 mg-C/mL HA. The experimental results were successfully explained by CFT and DLVO theory, the main mechanisms were aggregation of CuO NPs, interaction energy and collision between CuO NPs and collector. In general, these findings can improve our understanding of the transport and retention of CuO NPs in subsurface environments, and suggest pH, IS, HA may be key factors governing mobility and stability of CuO NPs in natural environment.