Surface complexation models oxide-solution interface

Many models, which could be classified as "surface complexation models (6-8)," have been used to describe reactions at the oxide-solution interface. Although there are differences in the way these models are formulated, they all have two features in common ... 

Chemical relaxation methods can be used to determine mechanisms of reactions of ions at the mineral/water interface. In this paper, a review of chemical relaxation studies of adsorption/desorption kinetics of inorganic ions at the metal oxide/aqueous interface is presented. Plausible mechanisms based on the triple layer surface complexation model are discussed. Relaxation kinetic studies of the intercalation/ deintercalation of organic and inorganic ions in layered, cage-structured, and channel-structured minerals are also reviewed. In the intercalation studies, plausible mechanisms based on ion-exchange and adsorption/desorption reactions are presented steric and chemical properties of the solute and interlayered compounds are shown to influence the reaction rates. We also discuss the elementary reaction steps which are important in the stereoselective and reactive properties of interlayered compounds. 

The main, currently used, surface complexation models (SCMs) are the constant capacitance, the diffuse double layer (DDL) or two layer, the triple layer, the four layer and the CD-MUSIC models. These models differ mainly in their descriptions of the electrical double layer at the oxide/solution interface and, in particular, in the locations of the various adsorbing species. As a result, the electrostatic equations which are used to relate surface potential to surface charge, i. e. the way the free energy of adsorption is divided into its chemical and electrostatic components, are different for each model. A further difference is the method by which the weakly bound (non specifically adsorbing see below) ions are treated. The CD-MUSIC model differs from all the others in that it attempts to take into account the nature and arrangement of the surface functional groups of the adsorbent. These models, which are fully described in a number of reviews (Westall and Hohl, 1980 Westall, 1986, 1987 James and Parks, 1982 Sparks, 1986 Schindler and Stumm, 1987 Davis and Kent, 1990 Hiemstra and Van Riemsdijk, 1996 Venema et al., 1996) are summarised here. 

Hayes, KF. Papelis, C. Leckie, J.O. (1988) Modeling ionic strength Effects on anion adsorption at hydrous oxide/solution interfaces. J. Colloid Interface Sd. 78 717—726 Hayes, KF. Roe, A.L. Brown, G.E. Hodgson, KO. Leckie, J.O. Parks, G.A. (1987) In-situ X-ray absorption study of surface complexes Selenium oxyanions on a-FeOOH. Sdence 238 783-786... 

This example illustrates the qualitative nature of information that can be gleaned from macroscopic uptake studies. Consideration of adsorption isotherms alone cannot provide mechanistic information about sorption reactions because such isotherms can be fit equally well with a variety of surface complexation models assuming different reaction stoichiometries. More quantitative, molecular-scale information about such reactions is needed if we are to develop a fundamental understanding of molecular processes at environmental interfaces. Over the past 20 years in situ XAFS spectroscopy studies have provided quantitative information on the products of sorption reactions at metal oxide-aqueous solution interfaces (e.g., [39,40,129-138]. One... 

Sposito, G. (1983) On the surface complexation model of the oxide-aqueous solution interface./. Colloid Inteface So., 91, 329-340. 

The site binding model based on reactions (1), (2), (14) and (15), often called surface complexation model (SCM), was, beside the simple site binding models (for example two layer model or constant capacitance model) readily applied to a description of the edl on the metal oxide-electrolyte solution interface. Reactions (14) and (15) describe the adsorption of so-called back-... 

Papelis C., Hayes K. F., and Leckie J. O. (1988) HYDRAQL A Program for the Computation of Chemical Equilibrium Composition of Aqueous Batch Systems Including Surface-complexation Modeling of Ion Adsorption at the Solution Oxide/Solution Interface. 306. Environmental Engineering and Science, Department of Civil Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 131pp. 

Various chemical surface complexation models have been developed to describe potentiometric titration and metal adsorption data at the oxide—mineral solution interface. Surface complexation models provide molecular descriptions of metal adsorption using an equilibrium approach that defines surface species, chemical reactions, mass balances, and charge balances. Thermodynamic properties such as solid-phase activity coefficients and equilibrium constants are calculated mathematically. The major advancement of the chemical surface complexation models is consideration of charge on both the adsorbate metal ion and the adsorbent surface. In addition, these models can provide insight into the stoichiometry and reactivity of adsorbed species. Application of these models to reference oxide minerals has been extensive, but their use in describing ion adsorption by clay minerals, organic materials, and soils has been more limited. 

Papelis, C., K.F. Hayes, and J.O. Leckie. 1988. HYDRAQL A program for the computation of chemical equilibrium composition of aqueous batch systems including surface-complexation modeling of ion adsorption at the oxide/solution interface. Department of Civil Engineering Technical Report no. 306, Stanford Univ. Menlo Park, CA. 

Figure 3 The surface complexation model for a metal oxide/aqueous solution interface using NaCl electrolyte as an example of counterions.

In the absence of a good technique able to characterize reaction sites, surface acidity is considered to be an average value. The constants and (or and K ) related to amphoteric sites are often treated as adjustable parameters in models of the oxide-solution interface. A model of multiple site complexation has recently allowed a better description of the surface of oxide colloids, as well as an interpretation of their behavior. 

In surface precipitation cations (or anions) which adsorb to the surface of a mineral may form at high surface coverage a precipitate of the cation (anion) with the constituent ions of the mineral. Fig. 6.9 shows schematically the surface precipitation of a cation M2+ to hydrous ferric oxide. This model, suggested by Farley et al. (1985), allows for a continuum between surface complex formation and bulk solution precipitation of the sorbing ion, i.e., as the cation is complexed at the surface, a new hydroxide surface is formed. In the model cations at the solid (oxide) water interface are treated as surface species, while those not in contact with the solution phase are treated as solid species forming a solid solution (see Appendix 6.2). The formation of a solid solution implies isomorphic substitution. At low sorbate cation concentrations, surface complexation is the dominant mechanism. As the sorbate concentration increases, the surface complex concentration and the mole fraction of the surface precipitate both increase until the surface sites become saturated. Surface precipitation then becomes the dominant "sorption" (= metal ion incorporation) mechanism. As bulk solution precipitation is approached, the mol fraction of the surface precipitate becomes large. 

Macroscopic experiments allow determination of the capacitances, potentials, and binding constants by fitting titration data to a particular model of the surface complexation reaction [105,106,110-121] however, this approach does not allow direct microscopic determination of the inter-layer spacing or the dielectric constant in the inter-layer region. While discrimination between inner-sphere and outer-sphere sorption complexes may be presumed from macroscopic experiments [122,123], direct determination of the structure and nature of surface complexes and the structure of the diffuse layer is not possible by these methods alone [40,124]. Nor is it clear that ideas from the chemistry of isolated species in solution (e.g., outer-vs. inner-sphere complexes) are directly transferable to the surface layer or if additional short- to mid-range structural ordering is important. Instead, in situ (in the presence of bulk water) molecular-scale probes such as X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (XAFS) and X-ray standing wave (XSW) methods are needed to provide this information (see Section 3.4). To date, however, there have been very few molecular-scale experimental studies of the EDL at the metal oxide-aqueous solution interface (see, e.g., [125,126]). 

Ionization of the oxide/water interface and the resultant electrical double layer have been studied intensively by a variety of techniques within the last decade. Although many electrical double layer and adsorption models have been proposed, few are sufficiently general to consider surface equilibria in complex electrolyte solutions. Recently we proposed a comprehensive adsorption model for the oxide/water interface which can simultaneously estimate adsorption density, surface charge, and electro-kinetic potential in a self-consistent manner (jL, 2, 3). One advantage of the model was that it could be incorporated within the computer program, MINEQL ( ), by adding charge and mass-balance equations for the surface. 

Figure 3. Highly schematic view of the electrical double layer (EDL) at a metal oxide/aqueous solution interface showing (1) hydrated cations specifically adsorbed as inner-sphere complexes on the negatively charged mineral surface (pH > pHpzc of the metal oxide) (2) hydrated anions specifically and non-specifically adsorbed as outer-sphere complexes (3) the various planes associated with the Gouy-Chapman-Grahame-Stem model of the EDL and (4) the variation in water structure and dielectric constant (s) of water as a function of distance from the interface, (from Brown and Parks 2001, with permission)...

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