Resumen de Laboratory Experiment on Electrokinetic Remediation of Soil

Alya H. Elsayed Ali, Tarek Abdel-Fattah, Hani E. Elsayed Ali

• Electrokinetic remediation is a method of decontaminating soil containing heavy metals and polar organic contaminants by passing a direct current through the soil. An undergraduate chemistry laboratory is described to demonstrate electrokinetic remediation of soil contaminated with copper. A 30 cm electrokinetic cell with an applied voltage of 30 V is used to demonstrate the redistribution of copper in sand initially contaminated with 0.24 M copper chloride solution. The copper content in sand is measured by acid extraction followed by complexometric titration. The measurement of the pH across the cell is used to demonstrate the difference in mobility between the H+ and OH– ions during the electrokinetic process.