Surface speciation of myo-inositol hexakisphosphate adsorbed on TiO2 nanoparticles and its impact on their colloidal stability in aqueous suspension: A comparative study with orthophosphate

Abstract

Despite extensive research demonstrating the influence of organic matter and inorganic phosphate on the stability of TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs), far less research has assessed the impact of myo-inositol hexakisphosphate (IHP), a common organic phosphate widely present in the environment. In this study, the adsorption of IHP on TiO2 NPs and its impact on their colloidal stability were investigated using batch experiments, dynamic light scattering (DLS) techniques, in situ attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) and solid-state 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Inorganic orthophosphate (Pi) adsorption was run for comparison. The ratio of the Pi/IHP adsorption density (1.528: 0.453) at pH5.0 suggested that IHP may complex on the TiO2 surface through three of its six phosphate groups. Zeta potential measurements, ATR-FTIR and NMR spectra indicated that IHP/Pi adsorbed onto TiO2 NPs by forming inner-sphere complexes and modified the surface charge of these NPs, which exerted a great impact on their colloidal stability. Interactions between NPs measured by sedimentation and aggregation size highly depended on the pH, surface phosphorus coverage, and surface phosphorus species. The impact of IHP on the aggregation and dispersion of TiO2 NPs was significantly larger than that of Pi, in agreement with the calculation from the DLVO theory. This study highlighted the impact of IHP relative to Pi on the colloidal stability of TiO2 NPs in phosphorus-enriched environments.