Abstract: Chlordane,endosulfan and mirex were selected as target pollutant in bench scaled experiments using surfactant-enhanced microscale Cu/Fe bimetal to degrade organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in water and soil slurry. Results show that Triton X-100 (TX-100), a nonionic surfactant,exhibited higher stimulative effect on Cu/Fe reactivity than sodium dodecyl sulfate(SDS), an anionic surfactant, did. The TX-100-Cu/Fe system could degrade OCPs in water rapidly and efficiently.The optimal TX-100 dosage was 0.1 mmol·L^-1. Twelve hours after treatment, the degradation rate of γ-chlordane,endosulfan and α-chlordane reached nearly 100%, and that of mirex was also as high as 85.2%. In treating soil slurry, acidic pH was very important to a highreducing activity of the microscale Cu/Fe particles. The addition of TX-100 greatly promoted the effect of microscale Cu/Fe degrading OCPs in soil slurry. A higher proportion of Cu in the bimetal system led to enhanced removal of contaminants. When a soil/water suspension, 1:5 in ratio,was amended with 10% of Fe and loaded with 5.0% of Cu and 5.0 mmol·L^-1, TX-100, 72 h of incubation in pH 4 – 5 had 83.5%, 68.1%, 86.8% and 70.1%, respectively, of the γ-chlordane, endosulfan, α-chlordane and mirex in the suspension degradation. The findings suggest that the TX-100 enhanced microscale Cu/Fe offers an efficient method for remediation of OCPs contaminated soils.

Key words: organochlorine pesticides, soil remediation, surfactant, zero valent iron