Sorption of silica by clay minerals

Clay minerals were reacted with silica-spiked solutions of unbuffered distilled water; water buffered at pH 5.5, 8 and 10; alkali chloride solutions; natural and artificial sea water to assess the influence of pH, silica and cation activities. The data are plotted as silica produced by dissolution or sorption of silica by clay surface as a function of initial silica concentration at a given pH and solution composition. This allows the determination of the dissolved silica value at which the clay mineral surface neither dissolves nor sorbs silica. The values of the various activities in different solutions are used to infer the phase equilibria between solution, clay mineral and the surface phase produced either by dissolution or sorption. Most intensively investigated were sorption reactions of kaolinite in sea water and other ionic solutions to form silica-rich, cation-rich surface phases in cationic solutions and silica-rich phases in cation-free solutions.Inferred equilibrium constants imply that silicate reconstitution is doubtful as a mechanism for partial control of silica and cation composition of sea water but is reasonable in silica-rich interstitial waters.