Electrical double layers’ interaction between oppositely charged particles as related to surface charge density and ionic strength

Abstract

Phyllosilicates with net negative surface charge and Fe/Al oxides with net positive surface charge co-exist in variable charge soils and the interaction between these oppositely charged particles affects the stability of mixed colloids, aggregation, and even the surface chemical properties of variable charge soils. The overlapping of the diffuse layers of electrical double layers between kaolinite and goethite, hematite, gibbsite and γ-Al 2O 3 was investigated in this article based on the change of zeta potential and electrokinetic charge density induced by the addition of Fe/Al oxides. The results indicated that in the range of pH from 3 to 7, the kaolinite is negatively charged and the Fe/Al oxides are positively charged, and the overlapping of the diffuse layers led to the increase in zeta potential and the decrease in surface charge density of binary-system containing kaolinite and Fe/Al oxides compared with the single kaolinite system. The presence of gibbsite resulted in the strongest interaction of electrical double layers between this and kaolinite, followed by goethite and hematite. The interaction extent of electrical double layers between kaolinite and Fe/Al oxides increased with the amount of Fe/Al oxides added. The interaction also resulted in the increase in IEP of the binary-system containing kaolinite and Fe/Al oxides. The increase in ionic strength led to the decrease in the thickness of colloid diffuse layer and thus resulted in the reduction of overlapping of the diffuse layers between kaolinite and Fe/Al oxides.