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DYNAMICS OF MINERAL STRUCTURES AND THE FATE OF METALS IN SOILS AND SEDIMENTS
Citation:
Ford*, R. DYNAMICS OF MINERAL STRUCTURES AND THE FATE OF METALS IN SOILS AND SEDIMENTS. Presented at 6th International Conference on the Biogeochemistry of Trace Elements, Guelph, Canada, 7/29 - 8/2/01.
Description:
Significant progress has been made in elucidating sorption reactions that control the partitioning of metals from solution to mineral surfaces in contaminated soil/sediment systems. Surface complexation models have been developed to quantify the forward reaction with reasonable success. However, these models often fail to describe the reversibility of metal sorption over a time scale relevant to natural systems. Experimental evidence suggests that slow or non-reversible metal sorption may be attributed to structural incorporation during mineral structural transformations or the formation of trace precipitate phases with ill-defined structure or composition. Examples of these studies include research to examine: 1) the incorporation of trace metals into re-crystallizing iron and aluminium oxides (Ainsworth et al., 1994; Ford et al., 1997; Martinez and McBride, 2000), and 2) the formation of trace precipitates at the mineral-water interface (Fendorf et al., 1994; Ford et al., 1999; Manceau et al., 1999; Thompson et al., 1999)