Electron Exchange and Conduction in Nontronite from First-Principles
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (United States)
Fe-bearing clay minerals serve as an important source and sink for electrons in redox reactions in various subsurface geochemical environments, and electron transfer (ET) properties of the Fe2+/Fe3+ redox couple play a decisive role in a variety of physicochemical processes involving clays. Here, we apply first-principles calculations using both periodic GGA+U planewave and Hartree-Fock molecular-cluster frameworks in conjuction with small polaron hopping approach and Marcus electron transfer theory to examine electron exchange mobilities in an Fe-rich smectite, taking nontronite as a case study. GGA+U calculations of the activation barrier for small-polaron migration provide rates of electron hopping that agree very well with values deduced from variable temperature Mössbauer data (M. V. Schaefer, et. al., Environ. Sci. Technol. 45, 540, (2011)), indicating a surprisingly fast electron mobility at room temperature. Based on molecular cluster calculations, we show that the state with tetrahedral Fe2+ ion in the nontronite lattice is about 0.9 eV higher than the one with octahedral Fe2+. Also, evaluation of the ET rates for the Fe2+/Fe3+ electron hopping in tetrahedral (TS) and octahedral sheets (OS), as well as across the sheets (TS–OS) shows that the dominant contribution to the bulk electronic conductivity should come from the ET within the OS. Deprotonation of structural OH groups mediating ET between the Fe ions in the OS is found to decrease the internal reorganization energy and to increase the magnitude of the electronic coupling matrix element, whereas protonation (to OH2 groups) has the opposite effect. Overall, our calculations suggest that the major factors affecting ET rates are the nature and structure of the nearest-neighbor local environment and the degree of covalency of the bonds between Fe and ligands mediating electron hops. The generally higher reorganization energy and weaker electronic coupling found in Fe-bearing clay minerals leads to electron mobilities much lower than in iron oxides.
- 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:
- 1071986
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-92020; 46203; KP1702030
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Physical Chemistry. C, Vol. 117, Issue 5; ISSN 1932-7447
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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