Preparation and characterization of mixed hydroxy-Fe-Al pillared montmorillonite with large basal spacing

Mixed hydroxy-Al-Fe pillared montmorillonites with large basal spacing were successfully prepared through cation-exchanging of Na +- montmorillonite with mixed hydroxy-Al and hydroxy-Fe pillaring solutions made from hydrolysis of corresponding metal salts, followed by calcination to convert hydroxy-Al and hydroxy-Fe into intercalated polycations. According to XRD analysis, the basal spacing d(001) of pillared products dramatically enlarged from 12.7 *! in the Na-montmorillonite to 81 *! in the hydroxy-Fe -montmorillonite and 77.5 *! in mixed hydroxy-Al-Fe-montmorillonite. The N_2 BET surface areas of the pillared montmorillonites also greatly increased to more than 200 m 2/g as compared to about 27 m 2/g for the Na-montmorillonite. IR analysis of hydroxy-Fe, and mixed hydroxy-Al-Fe pillared montmorillonites revealed a new absorption vibration at 1384 cm -1 wavelength. XRF elemental analysis data also showed a high content of Fe_2O_3 in the hydroxy-Fe pillared montmorillonite.

Adsorption of As on hydroxy-Fe-montmorillonite complexes

Arsenate has high affinity for soluble hydroxy-Fe species and Fe-oxyhydroxide pre-cipitates. In addition, the hydrolysis of Fe(III) and the growth of the initially precipitated Fe(III) phases are strongly influenced by the presence of montmorillonite. In this paper, the adsorption of As onto various hydroxy-Fe-montmorillonite (H-F-M) complexes was studied. Three systems of samples were prepared by mixing montmorillonite, hydroxy-Fe and arsenate in different se-quences: (1) Prior mixing of montmorillonite and hydroxy-Fe before the addition of arsenate; (2) prior mixing of hydroxy-Fe and arsenate before the addition of montmorillonite; and (3) prior mixing of montmorillonite and arsenate before the addition of hydroxy-Fe. For each system, the effects of pH, ionic strength, temperature, initial Fe and As concentrations and adsorption dura-tion on the overall uptake of As by H-F-M complexes were studied. Results showed that the up-take of As increased with increasing pH, temperature, initial Fe concentration and adsorption duration, and decreased with increasing ionic strength and initial As concentration to different extents for the three systems. The variation of the As uptake of H-F-M complexes with pH in the range of study is opposite to that reported previously for Fe-O-H systems in the absence of montmorillonite and similar to that reported for montmorillonite in the absence of hydroxy-Fe. The marked influence of ionic strength on the As uptake of H-F-M complexes indicates that outer-sphere complexation plays an important role. This is quite different from the adsorption of As on the surface of either Fe-oxyhydroxides or montmorillonite alone in which inner-sphere complexation dominates. Under all experimental conditions, the H-F-M complexes studied dis-played a very strong affinity for As, among which system 2 had the highest As adsorption capac-ity and system 1 the lowest. The authors attribute this to the differences in mixing sequence which resulted in more hydroxy-Fe (the main adsorbent for As) in system 1 adsorbing onto montmorillonite before adsorbing As than in systems 2 or 3.