Sedimentation of nanoparticle titanium dioxide in the presence of ammonium

Abstract

Due to its physicochemical properties, nanoparticles titanium dioxide (nTiO2) is being put into mass production and widespread applications, which inevitably results in their increasing exposure to the water body. After it entering the water body, the chemical properties of nTiO2 can be influenced by ion compositions, ion strength and pH, which affects their ecological risk. Excess of ammonium (NH4+) fertilizer has contaminated soil and water environments. In this paper, the Zeta potentials and hydrodynamic radius of nTiO2 were studied in NH4+ solution compared to those in Na+ solution. In addition, the sedimentation rate of nTiO2 was also investigated. The experiment results show that high pH inhibits the sedimentation of nTiO2. Moreover, NH4+ increases the stability of nTiO2 more than Na+ at the same IS, which was attributed the more negative Zeta potentials and the smaller hydraulic radius. Our results provide a theoretical basis for evaluating the ecological risk of nTiO2 in aqueous solution containing NH4+.