Journal
ACS EARTH AND SPACE CHEMISTRY
Volume 3, Issue 11, Pages 2421-2429Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsearthspacechem.9b00166
Keywords
kaolinite; illite; montmorillonite; acidic treatment; surface properties; cadmium adsorption capacity
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) [RGPIN-165831]
- China Scholarship Council (CSC) [201506420044]
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) [JP17H06455]
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Clays are one of the most abundant minerals on the Earth's surface, and they play a significant role in global trace element cycling because of their ability to adsorb and incorporate a range of metal cations. However, to what extent clay surface reactivities are affected by changes in pH of the surrounding environment remains poorly understood. To address this uncertainty, we investigated three common clay minerals (kaolinite, illite, and montmorillonite) and compared their surface properties and metal binding capacity prior to and after acidic treatment (pH ranges from 0 to 7). We report that (1) the morphologies and crystal structures of the three studied clay minerals do not differ markedly after exposure to an acidic solution, (2) all three clays display increases in surface area after the pH 0 acidic treatment, and (3) cadmium adsorption to all three clays decreased after the pH 0 acidic treatment. Our results suggest that the variation in metal adsorption capacity is related to acidic modification of clay surface properties. Importantly, this work shows the relevance of acidic environments on surface-controlled reactions of trace metals to clay minerals.
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