| A cylinder experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of hydrophilic polymers from diapers on remediation of mine soil contaminated with heavy metals and growth of local plant（Spergularia purpurea）. Four treatments were designed as control（CK）, hydrophilic polyemrs from diapers（DP）, artificial polyacrylate polymer（PC） and Shredded diapers（SD）. The results showed that using DP enhanced greatly soil cover by plant and covered all soil surface after 56 days, and was faster than other two amended treatments. As compared with CK, single and accumulated plant biomass in the amended soils increased remarkablely, about 3 and 5 times that of CK, and the concentrations of metals in shoot significantly reduced about 40%~60%. The qualities of contaminated mine soil were improved significantly in the treatment with DP if compared with CK as consideration of leveled soil pH（from 4.7 to 6.6）, enhanced soil hydrolytic enzyme activities and improved soil microorganisms activity shown by the means of soil DHA and soil respiration. Although the results from the treatment with SD were significantly better than that of CK, they were worse than other two amended treatments. The possible reason might be the great amount of plastics and fibres in it. Seen from all the results in this experiment, the effect of using DP is similar to PC, which means that recycling hydrophilic polymers from diapers can be applied for the remediation of contaminated soil with heavy metals. |
