Coordination nature of aluminum (oxy)hydroxides formed under the influence of low molecular weight organic acids and a soil humic acid studied by X-ray absorption spectroscopy

Organic ligands in the environment hinder the formation of crystalline Al precipitation products by perturbing the hydrolytic and polymeric reactions of Al resulting in the formation of short-range ordered (SRO) mineral colloids with varying degrees of crystallinity. However, the effect of these ligands on the mechanisms of their formation and nature of the transformation products of Al (oxy)hydroxides at the atomic and molecular levels is not well understood. In this study, the coordination structure of Al in Al (oxy)hydroxides formed under the influence of varying concentrations of low molecular weight (LMW) organic acids such as citric, malic, salicylic and acetic acids and a humic acid (HA) was investigated with X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. The Al K- and L-edge XANES spectra showed that with increasing LMW organic acid concentration the coordination number of Al changed from 6-fold to a mixture of 4- and 6-fold, except for acetate as acetate was unable to perturb the formation of Al (oxy)hydroxides at the acetate/Al molar ratio (MR) = 0.1. The proportion of 4-fold to 6-fold coordinated Al in the Al precipitation products depended on the structure and functionality of the LMW organic acids. The incorporation of the LMW organic acid into the network structure of Al (oxy)hydroxides prevented the formation of sheets/inter-layer H-bonding that was required for the formation of crystalline Al (oxy)hydroxides. The HA used in this study only slightly perturbed the crystallization of the Al (oxy)hydroxides at the concentrations used. The Al K-edge data showed that Al coordination number had not been altered in the presence of HA. The findings obtained in the present study are of fundamental significance in understanding the physicochemical behavior of soils and sediments, and their relation to the accumulation and transport of nutrients and pollutants in the environment.