The role of soil components in synthetic mixtures during the adsorption and speciation changes of Cr(VI): Conjunction of the modeling approach with spectroscopic and isotopic investigations

Abstract This study investigates redox transitions associated with the adsorption of Cr(VI) on commonly occurring soil components (silicates, oxides and humic acids) and their synthetic mixtures by coupling the mechanistic surface complexation modeling with spectroscopic and isotopic analyses. The mixtures of soil components were prepared to reflect the composition of the real anthroposol sample, determined by X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD), total organic carbon (TOC) measurement and extraction methods. The effect of different initial Cr(VI) concentrations (2 × 10 −2 , 5 × 10 −4 , 10 −4 , 10 −5 , and 10 −6  M), background electrolyte (10 −3 , 10 −2 , and 10 −1  M KNO 3 ), pH values (3–9), and sorbate/sorbent ratios (2 g/L - 20 g/L) were investigated. Maghemite and ferrihydrite were confirmed to be the main phases controlling Cr(VI) adsorption with increasing Cr(VI) concentration. Humic acids were primarily responsible for Cr(VI) reduction, especially at low pH values. The reduction of Cr(VI) was also proved in case of illite and kaolinite by XAS and isotopic analyses. Illite revealed higher reduction capacity in comparison with kaolinite based on XAS measurements. Chromium isotopic fractionation, resulting from Cr(VI) reduction, was the highest in the case of humic acids, followed by kaolinite and illite. However, a dissolution of intrinsic Cr originally present within kaolinite and illite might affect the final Cr isotopic composition of the supernatants due to its different Cr isotopic signature. In general, the combination of three different approaches was confirmed to offer more comprehensive information about Cr(VI) adsorption and/or reduction in soils. Detailed studies using soil mixtures can help to predict how the soil components affect Cr(VI) behavior in natural soils and possibly could improve the environmental remediation processes.