Disordered iron oxides as adsorbant for heavy metals: structural characterisation and reaction kinetics

Iron oxides can be used for the removal of heavy metals from contaminated water-based solutions of various origin. They seem to be efficient (particularly when the grain size is in the nano-region), with a good retention behaviour. They can be produced from metallic scrap materials, and be re-used in the steel industry as smelting aids, keeping in mind a circular economy view.
The relationship between structure and properties, however, is still largely unknown. The aim of these series of proposals (this is the second one) is to understand which is the structural role of heavy metals in the iron oxides, and, from a reaction kinetics point of view, to evaluate fully the kinetics of the process of formation of the iron oxides and of the adsorption of the heavy metals.