LAUSR

The stabilized Ni/Fe/Zn nanoparticles (S-Ni/Fe/Zn NPs) were successfully synthesized in the presence of starch as a stabilizing agent through the borohydride reductive method. The physicochemical properties of the prepared nanoparticles were characterized by FE-SEM, XRD, and EDS. The results showed that the synthesized S-Ni/Fe/Zn NPs were spherical in shape and they have nearly uniform distribution with the particle size of 20–60 nm. In the following, the prepared nanoparticles were used for the catalytic degradation of perchlorate to chloride ion from aqueous solutions. The main factors controlling the degradation of perchlorate, such as the pH, the amount of nanoparticles, and the reaction time were optimized by using an experimental design based on the response surface methodology. Under the optimum conditions, the degradation efficiency of perchlorate was 98%. Also, the degradation data were modeled using the pseudo-first-order kinetic equations which describe best the degradation kinetic. The rate constant (kobs) for the degradation step was 0.0353 min−1 at 303 K, and the activation energy (Ea) was calculated to be 13.38 kJ mol−1. However, the S-Ni/Fe/Zn NPs were successfully applied to the degradation of perchlorate in the well water and the industrial wastewater samples.