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Impact of environmental conditions on aggregation kinetics of hematite and goethite nanoparticles

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Abstract

Hematite and goethite nanoparticles were used as model minerals to investigate their aggregation kinetics under soil environmental conditions in the present study. The hydrodynamic diameters of hematite and goethite nanoparticles were 34.4 and 66.3 nm, respectively. The positive surface charges and zeta potential values for goethite were higher than for hematite. The effective diameter for goethite was much larger than for hematite due to anisotropic sticking of needle-shaped goethite during aggregation. Moreover, the critical coagulation concentration (CCC) values of nanoparticles in solutions of NaNO3, NaCl, NaF, and Na2SO4 were 79.2, 75.0, 7.8, and 0.5 mM for hematite and they were 54.7, 62.6, 5.5, and 0.2 mM for goethite, respectively. The disparity of anions in inducing hematite or goethite aggregation lay in the differences in interfacial interactions. NO3 − and Cl− could decrease the zeta potential and enhance aggregation mainly through increasing ionic strength and compressing electric double layers of hematite and goethite nanoparticles. F− and SO4 2− highly destabilized the suspensions of nanoparticles mainly through specific adsorption and then neutralizing the positive surface charges of nanoparticles. Specific adsorption of cations could increase positive surface charges and stabilize hematite and goethite nanoparticles. The Hamaker constants of hematite and goethite nanoparticles were calculated to be 2.87 × 10−20 and 2.29 × 10−20 J−1, respectively. The predicted CCC values based on DLVO theory were consistent well with the experimentally determined CCC values in NaNO3, NaCl, NaF, and Na2SO4 systems, which demonstrated that DLVO theory could successfully predict the aggregation kinetics even when specific adsorption of ions occurred.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (41271010 and 41230855) and Youth Innovation Promotion Association, CAS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 821, Nanjing, China

    Chen-yang Xu, Kai-ying Deng, Jiu-yu Li & Ren-kou Xu

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Chen-yang Xu

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  1. Chen-yang Xu
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  2. Kai-ying Deng
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  3. Jiu-yu Li
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  4. Ren-kou Xu
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Correspondence to Jiu-yu Li or Ren-kou Xu.

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Xu, Cy., Deng, Ky., Li, Jy. et al. Impact of environmental conditions on aggregation kinetics of hematite and goethite nanoparticles. J Nanopart Res 17, 394 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-015-3198-8

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