Binding Geometries of Silicate Species on Ferrihydrite Surfaces

Silicate sorption on ferrihydrite surfaces, as monomers, oligomers, and polymers, strongly affects ferrihydrite crystallinity, thermodynamic stability, and surface reactivity. How these silicate species bind on ferrihydrite surfaces is, however, not well understood. We have determined silicate binding geometries using a combination of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), differential atomic pair distribution function (d-PDF) analysis, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Silicon K-edge absorption pre-edges and DFT-predicted energies indicate that silicate forms monomeric monodentate–mononuclear (MM) complexes at low silicate sorption loadings. With increasing silicate loading, the pre-edge peak shifts to higher energies, suggesting changes in the silicate binding geometry toward multidentate complexation. The d-PDF analysis determines the Si–Fe interatomic distance to be ∼3.25 Å for the high-loading samples. The DFT calculations indicate that such distance corresponds to an oligomer in the bidentate–binuclear (BB) binding geometry. The transition of the silicate sorption geometry accompanied by polymerization can affect stability of ferrihydrite and its adsorption and redox reactivity and increase the degree of Si isotopic fractionation upon silicate sorption on Fe oxides. MM monomeric complexes and BB oligomeric complexes should be used for surface complexation models predicting silicate sorption on Fe oxide surfaces