Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-018-2134-8 ORIGINAL PAPER Application of three nanoparticles (Al 2 O 3 , SiO 2 and TiO 2 ) for metal‑contaminated soil remediation (measuring and modeling) E. Naderi Peikam 1  · M. Jalali 1 Received: 4 August 2018 / Revised: 27 October 2018 / Accepted: 24 November 2018 © Islamic Azad University (IAU) 2018 Abstract The immobilization of zinc (Zn), cadmium (Cd) and nickel (Ni) using nanoparticles (NPs) was investigated. Two non- calcareous and calcareous contaminated soils were incubated with Al 2 O 3 , SiO 2 and TiO 2 at 1 and 3% wt for 30 days at 25 °C in feld capacity moisture and then were fractionated by the sequential extraction procedure. After application of NPs, a signifcant increase in metals was observed in residual (RES) fraction. The maximum reduction in exchangeable (EXC) Cd fraction was measured in soil treated with 1% Al 2 O 3 (38.3%) and 3% SiO 2 (56.1%) for non-calcareous and calcareous soils, respectively. The highest decrease in EXC Zn fraction in non-calcareous and calcareous soils was 28.8% for Al 2 O 3 (3%) and 57.1% TiO 2 (3%) treatments, respectively. Interestingly, non-calcareous soil showed a higher capacity to reduce Ni in available fractions and it decreased on average by 14.0% and 11.0% for non-calcareous and calcareous soils, respectively. In general, SiO 2 NPs were an efective sorbent for immobilizing three metals in calcareous soils, while in non-calcareous soils the maximum reduction in mobile fraction of Cd and Zn occurred in the presence of Al 2 O 3 NPs, and the shift from mobile to stable fractions of Ni was higher in soils containing SiO 2 NPs. Similar to experimental data, the model predicted that NPs could reduce metal in EXC, carbonate (CAR), oxide (OX) and organically bound (OR) fractions. Results suggested that NPs can be efectively used for metal immobilization in multi-metal-contaminated soils and that surface complexation modeling (PHREEQC) could describe diferent fractions of metal in soils. Keywords Calcareous soils · Metals · Multi-contaminated soils · Nanoxides · Surface complexation modeling Introduction Soil contamination by mining efuents is one of the major environmental challenges. High concentration of heavy met- als afects negatively soil biological, chemical and physical properties and plant growth (Basheer 2018; Gupta and Ali 2012; Hubbard 2002). Thus, it is imperative to remove heavy metals from contaminated soils. Several techniques have been developed to immobilize heavy metals in soils, such as alkaline materials, phosphate minerals, oxides, lime and aluminosilicates (Ali et al. 2006, 2013; Meher et al. 2016). Recently, the use of nanoparticles (NPs) in soil remedia- tion has attracted the attention of researchers. Recent stud- ies have indicated that NPs, an ideal adsorbent with high adsorption capacity, has been a successful technique for the metal removal (Ali 2012; Ali et al. 2015, 2018; Ali and Gupta 2007; Gil-Díaz et al. 2014; Meher et al. 2016; Qafoku 2010b). In the last decade, utilization of solid state nanomaterials such as nanosemiconductors, nanometals, nanowires, nanotubes and nanoporous has increased in environmental systems (Ali 2012; Ali and Gupta 2007). For example, in recent years the special attention has been paid to application of nanometal oxides for photocatalytic degradation process in the wastewater treatment. Nanosized metal oxides have been applied as photocatalyst due to their excellent efciency of degrading various pollutants (Sara- vanan et al. 2018). In most cases, NPs have used to remove contaminants from water and groundwaters (Ali et al. 2013, 2016a; Burakova et al. 2018). The organic pollutants like herbicides were removed by nanocomposite materials (Ali Editorial responsibility: V.K. Gupta. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-018-2134-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * E. Naderi Peikam enaderipaykam@yahoo.com 1 Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran