The Assessment of Heavy Metal Concentration in River Bank Soil Under the Effect of Electrokinetic-Assisted Phytoremediation Using XRF and Edx Analysis

Abstract

River pollution may lead to the cause of death and diseases. The cause of its pollution could due to the mobility of the hazardous or toxic element from the human activities point sources through the groundwater system, and may resulting to aheavy metal migration into the river stream system. Therefore, an agro-based remediation methods known as Electrokinetic (EK)-assisted phytoremediation was implemented in this research. This technique is versatile and economical in decontaminating heavy metal at the river bank soil area. Hence, this research was focused on investigating the difference in trace elemental concentration in riverbank soil sample between pre- and post-phytoremediation under the electrokinetic influence. The riverbank soil sample was divided into two conditions which are: 1) control (as-received) and 2) EK-assisted phytoremediation by using a tropical plant species known as Dieffenbachia spp. In this study, two stainless steel electrodes were slot in at 5.0 cm depth on both side of this particular plant. A direct current (DC) voltage of 60 V was applied on both cathode and anode electrodes to form a uniform electric field with a magnitude of 6V/cm-1 around the plant root area. This electric field was applied consistently for 4 hours per day. Within a month, the reduction of trace element composition in the riverbank soil sample for pre and post experiment were determined using a non-destructive analytical technique, X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (XRF) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX) analysis. The analysis show a significant correlation of elemental concentration between pre and post experiment for the soil sample where the soil concentration tend to reduce due to the EK assisted phytoremediation effect.