Abstract
Thermal treatment has recently been emerging as a promising environmental technology to stabilize heavy metal-containing industrial sludge. This study used x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) to identify the species of copper contaminant contained in aluminium oxide that is one of the main compositions of sludge and soil. Results indicate that the originally loaded copper nitrate was transformed into Cu(OH) 2 after its dissolution in the aluminium oxide slurry. Extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) fitting indicates that the main copper species in the 105°C dried Cu(NO 3 ) 2 -loaded aluminium oxide is Cu(OH) 2 which accounts for ca. 75% of the loaded copper. After thermal treatment at 500°C for 1 h, both x-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and EXAFS fitting results show that CuO became the prevailing copper species (about 85%); the rest of the copper consisted of ∼ 15% Cu(OH) 2 and a negligible amount of Cu(NO 3 ) 2 . It was found that most Cu(OH) 2 and Cu(NO 3 ) 2 decomposed into CuO at 500°C. Further increase of the heating temperature from 500 to 900°C resulted in more decomposition of Cu(OH) 2 and Cu(NO 3 ) 2 ; therefore CuO remained as the main copper species. However, it was suggested that about 15% of the loaded copper formed CuAl 2 O 4 through the chemical reaction between CuO and Al 2 O 3 at 900°C.