skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Structural and Dynamical Relationships of Ca2+ and H2O in Smectite/2H2O Systems

Journal Article · · American Mineralogist
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2138/am.2014.4499· OSTI ID:1227052
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Alfred Univ., NY (United States)
  2. Indiana Univ., Bloomington, IN (United States)
  3. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)

We present an X-ray diffraction and multi-nuclear (2H and 43Ca) NMR study of Ca-exchanged hectorite (a smectite clay) that provides important new insight into molecular behavior at the smectite-H2O interface. Variable-temperature 43Ca MAS NMR and controlled humidity XRD indicate that Ca2+ occurs as proximity-restricted outer-sphere hydration complexes between –120 and +25 °C in a two-layer hydrate and at T ≤ –50 °C in a 2:1 water/solid paste. Changes in the 43Ca NMR peak width and position with temperature are more onsistent with diffusion-related processes than with dynamics involving metal-surface interactions such as site exchange. The 2H NMR signal between –50 and +25 °C for a two-layer hydrate of Ca-hectorite is similar to that of Na- and other alkali metal hectorites and represents 2H2O molecules experiencing anisotropic motion describable using the 2H C2/C3 jump model we proposed previously. 2H T1 relaxation results for Ca- and Na-hectorite are well fit with a fast-exchange limit, rotational diffusion model for 2H2O dynamics, yielding GHz-scale rotational reorientation rates compatible with the C3 component of the C2/C3 hopping model. The apparent activation energy for 2H2O rotational diffusion in the two-layer hydrate is greater for Ca-hectorite than Na-hectorite (25.1 vs. 21.1 kJ/mol), consistent with the greater affinity of Ca2+ for H2O. The results support the general principle that the dynamic mechanisms of proximity-restricted H2O are only weakly influenced by the cation in alkali metal and alkaline earth metal smectites and provide critical evidence that the NMR resonances of charge-balancing cations in smectites become increasingly influenced by diffusion-like dynamic processes at low temperatures as the charge density of the unhydrated cation increases.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab. (EMSL)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1227052
Journal Information:
American Mineralogist, Vol. 99, Issue 2-3; ISSN 0003-004X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English