Effects of modified carbon black nanoparticles on plant-microbe remediation of petroleum and heavy metal co-contaminated soils

Abstract

Little is known about the effect of modified carbon black nanoparticles (MNCB) on the availability of heavy metals and petroleum degradation in petroleum and heavy metals co-contaminated soils. The overall objective of this study was to investigate the simultaneous effect of MNCB on heavy metal immobilization and petroleum biodegradation in co-contaminated soil in plant and plant-microbe combined remediation. The results showed that the petroleum degradation increased by 50% in petroleum-Cd co-contaminated soil and 65% in petroleum-Ni co-contaminated soil in plant-microbe combined remediation, comparing with the plant remediation and the application of MNCB did not show significant improvement on petroleum degradation in both plant and plant-microbe combined remediation. MNCB could significantly reduce the availability of heavy metals in soil and the uptakes of Cd and Ni by Suaeda salsa by roughly 18 and 10% and improve the growth of plant by alleviating the growth inhibition caused by heavy metals. The application of Bacillus subtilis and Sphingobacterium multivorum (heavy metal tolerant bacteria) inhibited the biomass of Suaeda salsa by enhancing the petroleum degradation. It could be concluded that MNCB played a major role in immobilizing the heavy metals and bacteria dominated the petroleum degradation in petroleum-metal co-contaminated soil.