Modeling Selenite Adsorption Envelopes on Oxides, Clay Minerals, and Soils using the Triple Layer Model

Selenite adsorption behavior was investigated on amorphous Al and Fe oxides, clay minerals: kaolinite, montmorillonite, and illite, and 45 surface and subsurface soil samples from the southwestern and midwestern regions of the United States as a function of solution pH. Selenite adsorption decreased with increasing solution pH. The triple layer model, a chemical surface complexation model, was able to describe selenite adsorption as a function of solution pH by simultaneously optimizing both inner-sphere and outer-sphere selenite surface complexation constants. The fit of the triple layer model to selenite adsorption by soils was much improved over that obtained previously by optimizing solely an inner-sphere selenite surface complexation constant and the protonation constant in the constant capacitance model. In this previous application, the deprotonation constant had been neglected; thereby, preventing the reactive surface hydroxyl group from deprotonating; a chemically unrealistic situation. The selenite surface speciation predicted using the triple layer model was in agreement with that obtained for other strongly adsorbing anions such as molybdate. Direct spectroscopic investigations of selenite surface configuration are needed to corroborate the species predicted by the modeling approach.