Effect of sulfate erosion on strength and leaching characteristic of stabilized heavy metal contaminated red clay

Solidification/stabilization(S/S)technology has been widely used for remediation of the heavy metal contaminated soils.The heavy metal ions will be leached from the stabilized contaminated soil under sulfate erosion conditions,which gives rise tosecondary contamination to the areas around the mine sites.The commonly used Portland cement,fly ash and quicklime were takenas binder raw materials with various mix proportions.And then,the sulphuric acid and nitric acid method was used to investigate theleaching characteristic of stabilized heavy metal contaminated soils.The effects of binder types and binder contents,sulfateconcentrations(1.5,3.0and6.0g/L)and erosion time(0,7,14and28d)on leached concentrations of heavy metal ions fromcontaminated soils were studied.Moreover,a parameter named immobilization percentage(IP)was introduced to evaluate theinfluence of erosion time and sulfate concentration on immobilization effectiveness for heavy metal ions.The results showed that,theleached heavy metal concentrations increased with sulfate concentration and erosion time.Comparatively speaking,the compositebinders that had calcium oxide in it exhibited the worst solidification effectiveness and the lowest immobilization percentage,withthe largest leached heavy metal concentration.