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

• Published in: Journal of nanoparticle research : an interdisciplinary forum for nanoscale science and technology 2015-10, Vol.17 (10), p.1-13, Article 394
• Main Authors: Xu, Chen-yang, Deng, Kai-ying, Li, Jiu-yu, Xu, Ren-kou
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adsorption; Agglomeration; Anions; Cations; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Environmental conditions; Environmental impact; Hematite; Inorganic Chemistry; Kinetics; Lasers; Materials Science; Mathematical models; Nanoparticles; Nanostructure; Nanotechnology; Optical Devices; Optics; Photonics; Physical Chemistry; Research Paper; Sodium chloride; Surface chemistry; Zeta potential
• ISSN: 1388-0764; 1572-896X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11051-015-3198-8

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 NaNO 3 , NaCl, NaF, and Na 2 SO 4 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. NO 3 − 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 SO 4 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 NaNO 3 , NaCl, NaF, and Na 2 SO 4 systems, which demonstrated that DLVO theory could successfully predict the aggregation kinetics even when specific adsorption of ions occurred.