The effect of inositol hexaphosphate on cadmium sorption to gibbsite.

HYPOTHESIS: Oxides, hydrous oxides and hydroxides of aluminium and iron are important in determining the availability of trace and heavy metals in soil systems. The presence of complexing anions is also known to affect the binding of these metals in soils. Since organophosphates, such as inositol hexaphosphate (IP6), are present in most soil systems they are expected to affect the nature of the interaction between metal ions and metal (hyr)oxides. EXPERIMENTS: Both adsorption edge and isotherm experiments were conducted on Cd(II)-gibbsite and Cd(II)-IP6-gibbsite systems. In addition, solid-state (31)P MAS NMR measurements were performed on the ternary system. All results were used to develop Extended Constant Capacitance surface complexation models of both the Cd(II)-gibbsite and IP6-Cd(II)-gibbsite sorption systems. FINDINGS: The presence of IP6 significantly increased sorption of Cd(II) to gibbsite below pH 8 especially at higher concentrations of Cd(II) and IP6. The (31)P MAS NMR spectra, together with surface complexation modeling, indicated the presence of two outer-sphere ternary complexes with the first, [(SOH2)3(3+)(LHCd)(9-)](6-), important at relatively low concentrations, while the second, [SLH3(8-)Cd(2+)](6-), dominated sorption at higher sorbate concentrations. Thus the presence of organophosphates in soil systems increases sorption and may therefore decrease the availability of trace and heavy metals to plants.

Surface complexation modeling of inositol hexaphosphate sorption onto gibbsite.

The sorption of Inositol hexaphosphate (IP6) onto gibbsite was investigated using a combination of adsorption experiments, (31)P solid-state MAS NMR spectroscopy, and surface complexation modeling. Adsorption experiments conducted at four temperatures showed that IP6 sorption decreased with increasing pH. At pH 6, IP6 sorption increased with increasing temperature, while at pH 10 sorption decreased as the temperature was raised. (31)P MAS NMR measurements at pH 3, 6, 9 and 11 produced spectra with broad resonance lines that could be de-convoluted with up to five resonances (+5, 0, -6, -13 and -21ppm). The chemical shifts suggest the sorption process involves a combination of both outer- and inner-sphere complexation and surface precipitation. Relative intensities of the observed resonances indicate that outer-sphere complexation is important in the sorption process at higher pH, while inner-sphere complexation and surface precipitation are dominant at lower pH. Using the adsorption and (31)P MAS NMR data, IP6 sorption to gibbsite was modeled with an extended constant capacitance model (ECCM). The adsorption reactions that best described the sorption of IP6 to gibbsite included two inner-sphere surface complexes and one outer-sphere complex: ≡AlOH + IP6¹²â» + 5H⁺ ↔ ≡Al(IP6H4)7⁻ + H2O, ≡3AlOH + IP6¹²â» + 6H⁺ ↔ ≡Al3(IP6H3)6⁻ + 3H2O, ≡2AlOH + IP6¹²â» + 4H⁺ ↔ (≡AlOH2)2²âº(IP6H2)¹°â». The inner-sphere complex involving three surface sites may be considered to be equivalent to a surface precipitate. Thermodynamic parameters were obtained from equilibrium constants derived from surface complexation modeling. Enthalpies for the formation of inner-sphere surface complexes were endothermic, while the enthalpy for the outer-sphere complex was exothermic. The entropies for the proposed sorption reactions were large and positive suggesting that changes in solvation of species play a major role in driving the sorption process.