Acidity-Facilitated Mobilization of Surface Clay Colloid from Natural Sand Medium

Colloid mobilization and migration in a soil system has attracted increasing scrutiny for its role in facilitating colloid-borne transport of contaminants in the environments. In many previous studies, pH was evoked as a major factor in mobilizing surface colloids through inducing favorable surface charge and electrostatic conditions. The possible direct role of acidity with H+ as a chemical agent has remained largely obscured behind the indirect role of pH. In this study, we demonstrated through column flow-through tests that cyclical elution of natural sand media with weak acid and base solutions can greatly facilitate detachment and transport of surface clay colloids. We found that while elevating pH to an alkaline condition helped release the loosely-attached surface clays, a pretreatment with H+ could facilitate the mobilization of chemically-bonded clay colloids through lysing of labile Ca and Mg ions. A quantitative relation was observed that 1 mmol H+ could lyse about 0.5 mmol Ca2+ and Mg2+ and subsequently resulted in a release of about 1,200 mg clay during base elution when repulsive force between particles dominated. Natural organic acids such as citric acid and acetic acid in environment-relevant low concentrations (<1mM and pH>5.0) were as effective as HCl with a stronger acidic condition. The small mass ratio of Ca and Mg over colloid released and the nature of weak acid used suggest that the mobilization was less likely due to dissolution of cement casing than lysing of labile interstitial Ca and Mg by H+, which severed Ca and Mg bridging bonds between particles. Natural acidity is generated in abundance from various bio- and geochemical processes; e.g., many plants produce citric acid through citric acid cycle metabolism; biodegradation of dead organic matter forms humic acids. We postulate that natural proton dynamics in tendon with pH oscillation accompanied with various soil biogeochemical processes could play a major role in subsurface clay transport. Findings from this study could help improve our capacity in predicting and managing contaminant transport in soil-water environments. Figure 1. Schematics of the main interactions between soil hydrological processes, redox dynamics, acidity/alkalinity dynamics, and fate of contaminants.