Abstract
Enhanced Co migration in the presence of ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA, referred to below as Y) at U.S. Department of Energy waste sites may be due to the presence of Co(III)-Y rather than Co(II)-Y chelates in groundwaters. To examine the implication of this for the attenuation of Co in soils and subsoils, the absorption of equimolar Co and Y by δ-Al2O3 was examined for ranges of pH (5–9.5), adsorbate concentration (0.2–10 µM), adsorbent concentration (0.1–10 g/L), and ionic strength (0.1–0.001 M NaClO4) in the presence of dissolved Al (0.2–10 µM) in equilibrium with δ-Al2O3. The anionic Co(II)-Y and Co(III)-Y chelates exhibited ligand-like adsorption behavior as a function of pH; however, under identical conditions, Co(III)-Y adsorption was much less than that of Co(II)-Y. Dissolved Al competed with Co(II) for Y and, in both Co(II)-Y and Y-only experiments, Al-Y appeared to adsorb, although the affinity of surface hydroxyls (XOH) is greater for Co(II)-Y than for Al-Y. Significant variation in Co(II)-Y and Al-Y adsorption with ionic strength suggests that there is a major electrostatic contribution to adsorption and supports the hypothesis that these chelates form outer-sphere complexes (ion pairs) with XOH. Evidence for competition between XOH and Y for the Co(II) occurs only at the highest adsorbent-to-adsorbate ratio (10 g/L: 0.5 µM = Co(II) = Y), where Co(II)- and Co(II)-Y adsorption occur simultaneously for pH > 8. Outer-sphere surface complexes between XOH and the free carboxylate groups of the chelated Al and Co are proposed to describe absorption.
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