Efficient and safe use of a slow-release Mn material for three sequential crops of rice in Cd-contaminated paddy...

Traditional passivators reduce the effectiveness of Cd by ion exchange, chemisorption, and complexation in soil. However, traditional passivators have defects such as easy aging and poor durability, which not only reduce the treatment efficiency but also increase the risk of primary soil environmental pollution. For this reason, considering that Mn and Cd have physiological antagonism in rice, sepiolite-supported manganese ferrite (SMF) was prepared in this study to improve passivation persistence. The passivation mechanism, effect and duration of SMF were explored. The results showed that SMF has a dense and small pore structure and that the surface is rough, which provides abundant adsorption sites for Cd²⁺ adsorption. When the SMF adsorbs Cd²⁺, ions or functional groups in the material, such as MnOOH*, will exchange with Cd²⁺ to form Cd(OH)² and other internal complexes. Indoor pure soil cultivation experiments showed that 0.1 % SMF can reduce the effective Cd content of soil by 41.32 %, demonstrating the efficiency of SMF. The three-crop rice experiments in pots showed that SMF could increase soil pH and continuously increase the content of available Mn in soil. Increasing the content of available Mn reduces the ability of rice to absorb Cd. In addition, the three-cropping rice experiments also indicated that the passivation effect of SMF materials on Cd-contaminated paddy fields was long-lasting and stable and that SMF is a more efficient and safe Cd passivation agent.