Effects of zero-valent metals together with quartz sand on the mechanochemical destruction of dechlorane plus coground in a planetary ball mill

Mechanochemical destruction by grinding with additives in high energy ball milling has been identified as a good alternative to traditional incineration for the disposal of wastes containing halogenated organic pollutants. Despite CaO normally used as an additive, recently Fe + SiO2 has been used to replace CaO for a faster destruction. In the present study, zero-valent metals (Al, Zn, besides Fe) together with SiO2 were investigated for their efficiencies of prompting the destruction of dechlorane plus (DP). Aluminum was found of be the best with a destruction percentage of nearly 99% for either syn- or anti-DP after 2.5 h milling. In comparison, only 88/85% and 37/32% of syn-/anti-DP were destroyed when using zinc and iron after the same time, respectively. The detected water soluble chloride was lower than the stoichiometric amount containing in the original DP samples, due to the Si-Cl bond formed during the process. The potential fate of C and Cl present in DP is in the form of inorganic carbon, inorganic Cl and formation of Si-Cl bonds, respectively. The results suggested that Al + SiO2 is promising in the mechanochemical destruction of chlorinated organic pollutants like DP.