Iron-Mediated Oxidation of Antimony(III) by Oxygen and Hydrogen Peroxide Compared to Arsenic(III) Oxidation

Antimony is used in large quantities in a variety of products, though it has been declared as a pollutant of priority interest by the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States (USEPA). Oxidation processes critically affect the mobility of antimony in the environment since Sb(V) has a greater solubility than Sb(III). In this study, the co-oxidation reactions of Sb(III) with Fe(II) and both O2 and H2O2 were investigated and compared to those of As(III). With increasing pH, the oxidation rate coefficients of Sb(III) in the presence of Fe(II) and O2 increased and followed a similar pH trend as the Fe(II) oxidation by O2. Half-lives of Sb(III) were 35 and 1.4 h at pH 5.0 and pH 6.2, respectively. The co-oxidation with Fe(II) and H2O2 is about 7000 and 20 times faster than with Fe(II) and O2 at pH 3 and pH 7, respectively. For both systems, •OH radicals appear to be the predominant oxidant below approximately pH 4, while at more neutral pH values, other unknown intermediates become important. The oxidation of As(III) follows a similar pH trend as the Sb(III) oxidation; however, As(III) oxidation was roughly 10 times slower and only partly oxidized in most of the experiments. This study shows that the Fe(II)-mediated oxidation of Sb(III) can be an important oxidation pathway at neutral pH values.