Structural evidence for the sorption of Ni(II) atoms on the edges of montmorillonite clay minerals: a polarized X-ray absorption fine structure study

International audienceThe nature of surface complexes formed on Ni uptake onto montmorillonite (a dioctahedral smectite) has been investigated over an extended time period by polarized extended X-ray absorption fine structure (P-EXAFS) spectroscopy. Self-supporting films of Ni-sorbed montmorillonite were prepared by contacting Ni and montmorillonite at pH 7.2, high ionic strength (0.3 M NaClO 4), and low Ni concentration ([Ni] initial = 19.9 μM) for 14- and 360-d reaction time. The resulting Ni concentration on the clay varied from 4 to 7 μmol/g. Quantitative texture analysis indicates that the montmorillonite particles were well orientated with respect to the plane of the film. The full width at half maximum of the orientation distribution of the c* axes of individual clay platelets about the normal to the film plane was 44.3° (14-d reaction time) and 47.1° (360-d reaction time). These values were used to correct the coordination numbers determined by P-EXAFS for texture effects. Ni K-edge P-EXAFS spectra were recorded at angles between the incident beam and the film normal equal to 10, 35, 55, and 80°. Spectral analysis led to the identification of three nearest cationic subshells containing 2.0 ± 0.5 Al at 3.0 Å and 2.0 ± 0.5 Si at 3.12 Å and 4.0 ± 0.5 Si at 3.26 Å. These distances are characteristic of edge-sharing linkages between Al and Ni octahedra and of corner-sharing linkages between Ni octahedra and Si tetrahedra, as in clay structures. The angular dependence of the Ni-Al and Ni-Si contributions indicates that Ni-Al pairs are oriented parallel to the film plane, whereas Ni-Si pairs are not. The study reveals the formation of Ni inner-sphere mononuclear surface complexes located at the edges of montmorillonite platelets and thus that heavy metals binding to edge sites is a possible sorption mechanism for dioctahedral smectites. Data analysis further suggests that either the number of neighboring Al atoms slightly increases from 1.6 to 2 or that the structural order of the observed surface complexes increases from 0.01 Å 2 to 0.005 Å 2 with increasing reaction time. On the basis of the low Ni-Al coordination numbers, it appears that over an extended reaction time period of 1 yr the diffusion of Ni atoms in the octahedral layer is not the major uptake mechanism of Ni onto montmorillonite