Your new experience awaits. Try the new design now and help us make it even better

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.

Sec. Microbiological Chemistry and Geomicrobiology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1686052

This article is part of the Research TopicMicrobial Ecological and Biogeochemical Processes in the Soil-Vadose Zone-Groundwater Habitats, Volume IIIView all 7 articles

The influence of particle activated carbon on heavy metal passivation and antibiotic degradation in various organic fertilizers

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Jilin University, Changchun, China
  • 2Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Harbin, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

This study investigated the effects of different particle sizes of activated carbon (small particle activated carbon (S-AC, 2-4 mm), medium particle activated carbon (M-AC, 3-6 mm), and large particle activated carbon (B-AC, 5-8 mm)) on the physicochemical properties of organic fertilizers (chicken manure, sheep manure, cow manure and pig manure), the passivation of heavy metals, and the degradation of antibiotics. The results showed that the addition of particle activated carbon could increase the pH value of organic fertilizers, reduce the cation exchange capacity (CEC) value, and its fragmentation led to an increase in organic matter in organic fertilizers, but had no significant effect on the electrical conductivity (EC) value. The small particle activated carbon (S-AC) had high mechanical strength (compressive strength 4.014 MPa), low loss rate, and high recovery rate, showing the best remediation performance. After adding S-AC, the removal rates of total copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) in organic fertilizers reached 23.71%-28.57% and 15.41%-17.81% respectively, and the maximum passivation rates of exchangeable fraction Cu and Zn were 61.31% and 29.10%. At the same time, S-AC significantly promoted the degradation of antibiotics, with the degradation rates of tetracycline (TC) and ciprofloxacin (CIP) reaching 81.38%-85.81% and 76.53%-80.59% within 30 days.

Keywords: Particle activated carbon, Heavy metal passivation, Antibiotic degradation, organic fertilizer, Organic Fertilizers

Received: 14 Aug 2025; Accepted: 01 Sep 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Chi, Li and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Huai Li, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Harbin, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.