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Effects of montmorillonite on the adsorption of Fe(II) by ferrihydrite and its phase transformation at different pH

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Abstract

Recently, there has been a clear understanding of the mechanism and influencing factors of ferrihydrite (Fh) phase transformation catalyzed by Fe(II); however, these factors mainly belong to environmental conditions and exogenous substances. And there is a lack of research on the effect of soil composition and structure on the phase transformation of Fh. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of montmorillonite (Mt) on the adsorption of Fe(II) and phase transformation of Fh under near-neutral pH. The initial rates (\(\alpha\)) of Elovich equation demonstrated the addition of Mt inhibited the adsorption of Fh but simultaneously accelerated the initial adsorption, thus increasing the adsorption of the system (e.g., 22.09–25.03 mg/g as increased Mt under pH 6.5) due to its high surface charge density. Increased pH enhances the surface charge density by promoting the deprotonation of the surface group (Fe-OH, Al–OH, and Si–OH) and consequently increases adsorption of Fe(II) (e.g., 17.97–22.09 mg/g as increased pH of pure Fh). Based on the previous method of extracting labile Fe(III), we found that pH promotes the initial formation of labile Fe(III) by increasing electron transfer and promoting recrystallization caused by bridging condensation, via increased -OH. Although Mt inhibits the adsorption of Fh, it promotes the formation of labile Fe(III) by increasing the system adsorption and bond with Fh. The results of the analysis of variance showed both pH and solid ratio influence significantly on the maximum adsorption (p = 6.81 × 10−9 and 2.54 × 10−3) and the conversion ratios of labile Fe(III) (p = 3.43 × 10−24 and 9.16 × 10−43).

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Acknowledgements

Great thanks to the editor and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments to improve our manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2019YFC1907700).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430078, China

    Chang He, Zhe Yang, Yu Ning, Sen Yang & Jiayi Zhang

  2. Institute of Resources and Environment, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, 454003, China

    Fengcheng Jiang

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  1. Chang He
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Contributions

Chang He: data curation, writing—original draft. Yu Ning: funding acquisition, validation—review and editing. Zhe Yang: methodology, conceptualization—review and editing. Sen Yang: review. Fengcheng Jiang: supervision, validation. Jiayi Zhang: resources, formal analysis.

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He, C., Yang, Z., Ning, Y. et al. Effects of montmorillonite on the adsorption of Fe(II) by ferrihydrite and its phase transformation at different pH. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 28975–28989 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24309-6

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