July 16, 2007 17:42 00951

Surface Review and Letters, Vol. 14, No. 3 (2007) 461469

c World Scientic Publishing Company

DETERMINATION OF POINTS OF ZERO CHARGE OF

NATURAL AND TREATED ADSORBENTS

M. NASIRUDDIN KHAN and ANILA SARWAR

Department of Chemistry, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Pakistan

Fuel Research Centre, PCSIR Karachi, Karachi 75280, Pakistan

khannasir@myway.com
Received 7 February 2007
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by MCMASTER UNIVERSITY on 03/10/13. For personal use only.

Although particle size and its measurement are intuitively familiar to particle technologists, the
concept of point of zero charge (pzc) is less widely understood and applied. This is unfortunate
since it is at least as fundamentally important as particle size in determining the behavior of
particulate materials, especially those with sizes in the colloidal range below a micrometer. pzc
is related to the charge on the surface of the particle and strongly depends on the pH of the
material; so it inuences a wide range of properties of colloidal materials, such as their stability,
interaction with electrolytes, suspension rheology, and ion exchange capacity.
The pH dependence of surface charges was quantied for four dierent adsorbentaqueous
solution interfaces. The points of zero charge were determined for activated charcoal, gran-
ite sand, lakhra coal, and ground corn cob materials using three methods: (1) the pH drift
method, measuring pH where the adsorbent behaves as a neutral specie; (2) potentiometric
titration, measuring the adsorption of H+ and OH on surfaces in solutions of varying ionic
strengths; (3) direct assessment of the surface charge via nonspecic ion adsorption as a func-
s s
tion of pH. The intrinsic acidity constants for acid and base equilibria, pKa1 and pKa2 , were
also calculated. Lakhra coal was found to have the lowest pzc value among all other adsorbents
studied owing to the presence of a large amount of humus material. The results were used to
explain general connections among points of zero charges, cation exchange capacity, and base
saturation % of adsorbents.

Keywords: Points of zero charge; adsorbent; cationic exchange capacity; surface charge density;
solidliquid interface.

1. Introduction The surface charge development process is char-

When adsorbents are suspended in an aqueous elec-
trolyte solution, surface electrical charge develops
from the dissociation of the surface hydroxyl groups
and complexation of the background electrolyte ions.
H+ and OH are considered to be the potential-
determining ions.1 Thus, depending on pH of the
solution and concentration of the electrolyte, these
surfaces can behave as cation exchangers having net
negative charge, or anion exchangers bearing positive
charge or neutral species having no charge.
acterized by an important interfacial parameter,
commonly known as point of zero charge (pzc). The
concept of pzc was born during the studies of the oc-
culation of hydrophobic colloids.2 In the rst remark-
able series of papers published in Croatica Chemica
Acta, Stumm et al.3 invoked the pzc to express the
acidbase reactions of hydroxyl groups on the surface
of oxide minerals. Nearly 30 years after their pioneer
work, the prediction of the surface charge properties
of amphoteric adsorbents through chemical models of
the particlewater interface has become a hot topic

461
 July 16, 2007 17:42 00951
462 M. Nasiruddin Khan & A. Sarwar
in aqueous environmental chemistry.48 Although
Sposito9 and Appel et al.10 clearly explained the rig-
orous proofs of generic properties of surface charge,
on the basis of results they established and used gen-
eral connections among several points of zero charge
(PZCs) such as point of zero salt eect (pzse), point
of zero net proton charge (pznpc), point of zero net
charge (pznc), and conventional point of zero charge
(pzc). Mostly, authors used pzc as a general term
for all types of PZCs.11,12 Lyklema postulates that
only protons contribute to the surface charge and
hence pzc and pznpc are identical.13 In addition, sev-
eral workers reported points of zero charge as a tool
for the determination of chemical properties of soil
samples and mineral oxides or hydroxides by apply-
Surf. Rev. Lett. 2007.14:461-469. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com
ing geochemistry principles.1419 Despite the impor-
by MCMASTER UNIVERSITY on 03/10/13. For personal use only.
tance of charge properties to sorption of ionic and
neutral solutes for the above-mentioned materials,
PZCs have not been investigated for other adsor-
bents in detail. The present paper is an attempt to
describe the properties of adsorbents based on the
concept of surface charge balance. A thorough under-
standing of points of zero charge enables researchers
to select adsorbents for their specic applications.
2. Experimental
2.1. Background
In solution, the presence of a net charge on a particle
aects the distribution of ions surrounding it, result-
ing in an increase in the concentration of counterions.
The region over which this inuence extends is called
the electrical double layer. Conventionally, this layer
is thought of as existing as two separate regions: an
inner region of strongly bound ions known as the
stern layer and an outer region of loosely associated
ions called the diuse layer.
The surface charge on a particle is classied into
three operational categories: (i) structural, denoted
by 0 ; (ii) adsorbed proton, denoted by H ; and (iii)
adsorbed ion, denoted by q + q q, where
q + and q refer to the adsorbed cation and anion,
respectively, excluding H+ and OH bound in sur-
face complexes.20
A net total particle surface charge, P (in units
of moles of charge per kilogram of solid, molc kg1 ),
is the sum of four components9 :
P 0 + H + IS + OS , (1) 3030 B) were used for potentiometric studies and
where IS and OS are the surface densities of
the inner-sphere and outer-sphere complex charges,
respectively, and equal to the net total surface charge
of the ions, other than H+ or OH , that have formed
inner-sphere and outer-sphere complexes with the
surface functional groups. If P is nonzero (the par-
ticle posseses charge), it must be balanced by the
charge of ions adsorbed in the diuse layer D .
P = D ,
or
P + D = 0, (2)
so
0 + H + IS + OS + D = 0. (3)
The surface charge balance requires that the intrinsic
charge of the soil particles, in , including that result-
ing from both isomorphic substitutions (permanent
charge, 0 ) and proton adsorption (variable charge,
H ) must be balanced by the adsorption from the
solution of the background cation and anion.20
in = 0 + H = q. (4)
The net charge of ions, q, adsorbed into surface
complexes and the diuse ion swarm is given by
q = (q + q ) = IS + OS + D , (5)
where q + and q refer to the adsorbed cation and
anion charge, respectively, on the porous surface. The
presence of the porous surface into the colloidal par-
ticles signicantly alters the specic surface area of
the solid phase. However, the extent to which the
chemical reactivity (e.g., surface acidity, ion anity)
is aected is not known for most of the adsorbents.
In the present work, the adsorbents of dissimilar
surfaces were used to measure their surface charge
properties in an aqueous electrolyte solution. The
objective is to assess the extent to which the surface
of the porous adsorbent aects the particle surface
charge and the background ion adsorption.
2.2. Materials and method
Analytical-grade reagents were used without further
purication. Deionized water was used throughout
the work. All the solutions were prepared in Pyrex
glass vessels and stored at 4 C. An Orion 710 pH
meter with a combined glass electrode and AAS (PE-
 July 16, 2007 17:42 00951
Determination of Points of Zero Charge of Natural and Treated Adsorbents
metal ion determination, respectively. The estima-
tion of Cl in the sample solutions was made using
a chloride ion selective electrode on Auto Chem-
istry 900 (Orion). The electrode was calibrated at
the same ionic strength as the experiment. A Volac
ULTRA micropipette (1001000 L), model R680/E,
was used for acid base addition. All experiments for
charge determination were carried out under ambi-
ent laboratory conditions (temperature = 25 2 C).
The pH dependent surface charge was determined
by potentiometric acid base titration under a CO2
free atmosphere. Before the titration, the suspen-
sions containing adsorbents were stirred and bubbled
with puried nitrogen for an hour.
Four dierent adsorbents were selected for the
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present work: (i) granite sand, (ii) activated char-
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coal (Merck), (iii) lakhra coal; a famous coal mine in
Pakistan; and (iv) ground corn cob.
According to the standard denitions of points
of zero charge listed in Table 1, pzc is traditionally
dened as the pH value where one or more compo-
nents of the surface charge vanishes (D = 0) at a
specied temperature, pressure, and aqueous solu-
tion composition.9 The pzc was determined by the
pH drift method, recently used for the determina-
tion of the pzc of the wheat-residue-derived black
carbon.21 The pH of the 0.01 M NaCl was adjusted
to a value between 2 and 10 using 0.5 M HCl or 0.5 M
NaOH. An adsorbent (0.5 g) was added to 20 ml of
the pH adjusted solution in a capped vial and equi-
librated for 24 h. The nal pH was measured and
plotted against the initial pH. The pH at which the
curve crosses the pHinitial = pHfinal line was taken as
the pzc.
The point of zero salt eect (pzse) is the com-
mon intersection point (cip) of several H versus pH
curves, each determined at xed ionic strength of the
electrolyte background.9 The potentiometric titra-
tion method of Vanloon and Duy22 was used to
Table 1. Denitions of some points of zero charge.
Symbol Name Dening equation
pzc Point of zero charge D = 0
pznpc Point of zero net H = 0
proton charge
pzse Point of zero salt eect (H /I)T = 0
pznc Point of zero net charge in = 0
463
determine the pzse values for all adsorbents. Two
parallel experiments were conducted, each with air-
dried adsorbent material (1 g) with 35 ml of 0.0001
1.00 M NaCl as supporting electrolyte solution. One
suspension was titrated with an acid (0.05 M HCl)
and the other with a base (0.05 M NaOH). The cip
was determined by plotting curves between the vol-
ume of the acid and the base added against the pH of
the solution at dierent ionic strengths. The pH value
at the cip was taken as the pzse. It is the pH value
at which surface positive and negative charges associ-
ated with protonation/deprotonation equilibria just
balanced in the presence of nonreactive electrolyte.
The other two additional points of zero charge
that have to commence are pznpc and pznc.
The pznpc is the pH value where H equals zero.
The balance of net surface charge (Eq. (3)) can be
expressed by
o + IS + OS + D = 0. (6)
Therefore, by Eq. (4), it is the pH value where q
equals o . The Stumm model23 is the most straight-
forward method to determine the pznpc by measur-
ing q as a function of pH and then locating the
pH value at which q = 0 . This model marks out
the presence of surface charges on solids, which are
the result from the acidbase reaction. Thus, consid-
ering solids as containing functional surface groups
expressed as a generic binding site, SOH,
SOH
SO + H+ (7)
SOH+
2
SOH + H
+
(8)
the corresponding acidity constants are
[H+ ]{ SO }
s
Ka1 = , (9)
{ SOH}
s [H+ ]{ SOH}
Ka2 = , (10)
{ SOH+ 2}
where [ ] is the solution species concentration in mol
L1 and { } is the solid surface species concentra-
tion in mol g1 . Considering the solid surface elec-
troneutrality and the denition of pznpc in Table 1
(H = 0), another relation is obtain from Eqs. (9)
and (10)
s s
pKa1 + pKa2
pznpc = . (11)
2
 July 16, 2007 17:42 00951
464 M. Nasiruddin Khan & A. Sarwar
The surface charge of a solid, q in units mol g1 ,
corresponds to
q = {SOH+
2 } {SO }. (12)
For each point of the titration,
Ca Cb + [OH ] [H+ ]
qH qOH = , (13)
m adsorption of anions and cations is equivalent. Posi-
where Ca and Cb are the concentrations (mol L1 )
of the added acid and base, respectively, [H+ ] and
[OH ] are the molar proton and hydroxide ion con-
centrations, and m is the mass of the solid in g.
For HCl or NaOH addition, qH and qOH can be
expressed as
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Ca [H+ ]
qH = , (14)
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m discarded. A 0.5 M NaCl soluction (20 ml) was then
[OH ] Cb
qOH = . (15)
m
Since the solid is considered an amphoteric com-
pound, the total concentration of surface species,
{S}tot , corresponds to
{S}tot = { SOH} + { SO } + { SOH+
2 }. (16)
Surface acidity constants were calculated as follows:
When pH > pzc, the solution in contact with the
basal oxygen surface contains excess hydroxyls. SO
species will dominate the surface, and the particle
surface will then exhibit cation exchange capacity;
so qOH = { SO } and Eq. (9) becomes
s qOH [H+ ]
Ka1 = , (17)
{S}tot qOH
but if pH < pzc, the solution in contact with the
basal oxygen surface contains excess protons. SOH+
2 were combined and ltered and stored in a refrigera-
species will dominate the surface, and the particle
surface will then exhibit an anion exchange capac-
ity; so qH = { SOH+ 2 } and Eq. (10) becomes
s ({S}tot qH )[H+ ]
Ka2 = . (18)
qH
The value of {S}tot represents the total concentra-
tion of the protonable surface sites, but in practice
is often an adjustable parameter. Here, and follow-
ing the previous observations, it is taken as equal
to cation exchange capacity (CEC), a very useful
approximation.24 Successive pKas corresponding to
each qvalue were calculated and plotted. Intrinsic
acidity constants were obtained by taking intercept
of the plot showing the following relation11 :
pKas = pKa(int)
s
+ q. (19)
The values of the pznpc for dierent adsorbents were
calculated according to Eq. (11).
The pznc is the pH when the nonspecic surface
tive and negative charges were estimated by the mea-
surement of Na+ and Cl as a function of pH and
ionic strength (I). The method of Marcano-Martinez
and McBride25 modied by Appel10 was used. Air-
dried samples of 2.0 g were placed in pre-weighed
30 ml polyethylene centrifuge tubes to which 20.0 ml
of 1.0 M NaCl was added. The samples were shaken
for 1.0 h and centrifuged, with the supernatant being
added to the tubes, with the sample pH being
adjusted with HCl or NaOH to span the expected
points of zero net charge. This was followed by 1.0 h
of shaking, centrifugation, and supernatant removal.
The 0.5 M NaCl wash and pH adjustments were per-
formed two more times, with shaking times of 1.0 h.
The rigorous washing procedure was carried out to
ensure exchange sites were saturated with Na+ and
Cl . Five washes were then performed with 20 ml
of 0.01, and 0.001 M NaCl, with pH readjustment
and shaking for 1.0 h between each washing. This was
done to determine the eect of varying ionic strength
on retention of ions. After the nal washing, equi-
librium pH of the supernatant was measured. The
supernatants were discarded and samples weighed to
compensate for any entrained NaCl solution. Sam-
ples were then washed with 20 ml aliquots of 0.5 M
NH4 NO3 to displace Na+ and Cl ions. Extracts
tor prior to analysis. Concentrations of Na+ and Cl
were measured by AAS and ion meter, respectively.
The values of the pznc at dierent ionic strengths
were obtained from the adsorbed cation or anion (qNa
or qCl ) vs. the pH curve.
The cation exchange capacity and base satura-
tion % were calculated using the standard method22
involving extraction by aqueous ammonium chloride
at a concentration of 1.0 mol/l with pH adjusted to
4.5. The adsorbent (1.0 g) was extracted with 100 ml
of ammonium chloride solution in order to displace
the exchange cations from the adsorbent. After l-
tering, the principal cations calcium, magnesium,
 July 16, 2007 17:42 00951

Determination of Points of Zero Charge of Natural and Treated Adsorbents 465

potassium, and sodium were determined by ame 12

atomic absorption spectroscopy. The hydronium ion
10
was determined by titration against standard sodium
hydroxide. The CEC was calculated by taking sum
8
of all individual cations in cmol(+) kg1 .

Final pH
The percent base saturation oers the percent- 6
age of the exchangeable sites occupied by the basic
cations. The base saturation % was calculated using 4
the following formula:
2

Base saturation 0
number of exchange sites occupied 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
by all cations (except H) Initial pH
= 100.
total number of exchangeable sites (a)
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3. Results and Discussion ++ +- --

- + +
++ -+ --
The points of zero charge PZCs for the chosen ++
- +- --
adsorbents are given in Table 2. At the pzc there ++ - +
-+ --
is no surface charge to be neutralized by ions in ++ - +- --
++ + +
the diuse swarm, and any adsorbed ions that -+ --
++ +- --
exist must be bound in surface complexes. The - +
++ -+ - --
pzc of all adsorbents studied is below 7, show-
K1 K2
ing the existence of perfect charge balance in the OH2+ OH O-
acidic the region among the equilibrated ions in
an aqueous solution (Fig. 1). Titration curves at (i) pH < pzc (ii) pH = pzc (iii) pH > pzc
Anion exchanger Neutral specie Cation exchanger
varying ionic strength (I) illustrated the impact
on the thickness of the diuse double layer as a (b)
function of salt concentration. More charges devel- Fig. 1. (a) pzc of adsorbents by pH drift method: ()
oped on the surface, and the adsorption of protons lakhra coal, () corn cob, () activated charcoal, ()
increased at low pH, whereas desorption of protons granite sand. (b) A visual representation of protona-
occurred at high pH. Activated charcoal (Fig. 2(a)) tion/deprotonation on the surface of adsorbent.

Table 2. Points of zero charge of adsorbents.

S. No. Adsorbents pzse pznc [NaCl] (mol L ) pzc pznpc

1 Granite sand 3.60, 8.23 0.01 6.20 6.86

9.40 1.00 6.85
2 Corn cob 3.10 4.55 0.01 4.40 4.61
0.10 4.26
1.00 3.89
3 Activated charcoal 6.36 5.85 0.0001 5.79
0.01 5.34 5.62
1.00 6.01
4 Lakhra coal 4.50 2.22 0.01 3.10 2.78
0.10 2.67
1.00 2.44
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466 M. Nasiruddin Khan & A. Sarwar

11

9
4.2

7
pH

pH
5 3.2
NaCl 1.0M
1.0 M NaCl
NaCl 0.1M
3 0.01 M NaCl NaCl 0.01M
0.001 M NaCl
2.2
1
3 1 1 3 5
4 2 0 2 4
Acid Vol./ ml Base Acid Vol. / ml Base

(a) (b)
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10 12

8 10

6 8
pH

pH

4 6

1.0 M NaCl NaCl 1.0M

2 0.1 M NaCl 4 NaCl 0.01M
0.01 M NaCl

0 2
4 2 0 2 5 3 1 1 3 5
Acid Vol. / ml Base Acid Vol. / ml Base
(c) (d)

Fig. 2. pzse of dierent adsorbents: (a) activated charcoal, (b) lakhra coal, (c) corn cob, and (d) granite sand.

followed the usual trend, i.e., at higher electrolyte
concentration higher pH results before the pzse.10
This behavior explained the compression of the
double layer at high ionic strength and eectively
reduced the thickness of the double layer. The pres-
ence of these counterions in high concentration near
the colloid surface helps to reduce the surface poten-
tial more rapidly.
The cross over of ionic strength curves for
lakhra coal (Fig. 2(b)) showed an opposite trend,
i.e., at lower electrolyte concentration higher pH
results before the pzse. It is possible that at lower
ionic strength values protons were predominantly
consumed in dissolution reactions instead of gener-
ating the surface charge.
Corn cob (Fig. 2(c)) has shown a increasing gap
between the titration lines after the pzse due to
diminished buering capacity of the material which
was manifested via a relatively small increase in vol-
ume resulting in large change in pH. Generally soil
samples have the pzse from 2 to 4.7 Granite sand is
an exception. It yielded two intersection points at pH
3.60 and 9.40, respectively (Fig. 2(d)). This behavior
showed the dual anity of granite sand for adsorp-
tion/desorption processes in both acidic and basic
regions.
 July 16, 2007 17:42 00951

Determination of Points of Zero Charge of Natural and Treated Adsorbents 467

3000 2500

2000

qNa or qCl (mmolc kg-1)

qNa or qCl (mmolc kg -1)

2500

2000 1500

1500 1000

Na 500 Na
1000
Cl Cl

500 0
5 6 7 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4

pH pH

(a) (b)
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8000
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300
qNa or qCl (mmolc kg -1)

qNa or qCl (mmolc kg -1)

6000

200
4000

Na
2000 100
Cl Na
Cl
0
3 4 5 6 7 0
7.2 7.7 8.2 8.7
pH pH

(c) (d)

Fig. 3. pznc of dierent adsorbents: (a) activated charcoal, (b) lakhra coal, (c) corn cob, and (d) granite sand.

The pznc values of lakhra coal, corn cob, and acti-
vated charcoal were in the acidic region, while granite
sand showed in the basic region (Fig. 3). It was due
to the fact that the pznc values of humus materials
are below 4, and they tend to increase toward the
basic region as the geochemical weathering of soil or
sediment increases.9 Lakhra coal was found to have
the lowest pznc among all other adsorbents owing to
the presence of a large amount of humus material.
The values of pznpc are given in Table 2, accord-
ing to Eq. (11) by taking intercept from Fig. 4.
Several predictions for the behavior of adsorbents
can be made on the basis of PZCs values. Consider
the relationship between the pznpc and the pznc as
a rst application. At the pznc, Eq. (4) reduced to
0 + H = 0 (Table 1). This equation explains that if
pznpc > pznc, H must have a positive sign because
of the fact that H = 0 at the pznpc. It follows that
0 will be a negative quantity. In this work, the pznpc
was found to be slightly greater than the pznc for
activated charcoal and lakhra coal; this result was
an immediate indication that a slight negative struc-
tural charge exists onto the surface of the sample.
While an opposite behavior was observed for corn
cob and granite sand, i.e., H as a negative quantity,
and 0 as a positive quantity.
The approximate equality between the pzc and
the pznpc for granite sand realized the validity of
equation
0 + IS + OS = 0.
Since this special case was quite unlikely for soil
samples, it can be achieved approximately for
 July 16, 2007 17:42 00951

468 M. Nasiruddin Khan & A. Sarwar

6
11

10 5

9
4
8
3

pKas
7
s
pKa

NaCl 1.0 M 6 2
NaCl 1.0 M
NaCl 0.01 M
5
NaCl 0.1 M
NaCl 0.001 M 1
4 NaCl 0.01 M

3 0
-0.009 -0.004 0.001 -0.009 -0.004 0.001
-1
q / mol g -1
q / mol g
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by MCMASTER UNIVERSITY on 03/10/13. For personal use only.

(a) (b)

12 pKa1s
pKa1s 12

10
10

8
8
pKas

6 6
pKas

4 4 pKa2s
pKa2s NaCl 1.0M
NaCl 0.1M
NaCl 0.01M
NaCl 1.0 M 2 2
NaCl 0.01 M

0 0
-0.00025 -0.00005 0.00015 -0.003 -0.001 0.001
-1 -1
q / mol g q / mol g

(c) (d)

Fig. 4. pznpc of dierent adsorbents: (a) activated charcoal, (b) lakhra coal, (c) corn cob, and (d) granite sand.

reference soil minerals suspended in aqueous solu-
tions of 1:1 electrolytes as exemplied by the data
for Al2 O3 (8.75 and 8.5), birnessite (1.7 and 2.2),
and corundum (9.1 and 9.1).9 This result referred
granite sand to hold peculiar characteristics among
all other soil adsorbents.
Sposito has observed that additional cation
adsorption by any mechanism tends to decrease the
pznpc and vice versa.9 Our results veried his nd-
ings and explained in the other way that CEC of
adsorbents was in the following order: granite sand <
activated charcoal < corn cob < lakhra coal, while
an opposite order has been observed not only for
pznpc values but for pznc and pzc values (Table 2).
The values of CEC and base saturation % for
adsorbents under study are listed in Table 3. CEC
and base saturation % of lakhra coal were found
to be higher than that of other adsorbents, owing
to the presence of the organic matter provided a
major source of negative electrostatic sites showing
is a strong correlation between CEC values, and the
amount of organic matter present in the adsorbent.
 July 16, 2007 17:42 00951
Determination of Points of Zero Charge of Natural and Treated Adsorbents
Table 3. CEC and base saturation values of adsorbents.
Cation exchange
Capacity Base
S. No. Adsorbents cmol(+) kg1 saturation %
1 Granite sand 259.86 3.79
2 Corn cob 315.76 4.99
3 Activated charcoal 283.86 1.36
4 Lakhra coal 887.98 202.94
4. Conclusion
Four adsorbents were used to describe the dier-
ence between points of zero charge, namely the
point of zero charge, the point of zero salt eect,
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the point of zero net charge, and the point of
zero net proton charge using the acid base titration
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method. Although the studied adsorbents are of het-
erogeneous nature, the reproducible surface charging
behavior may not be easy for natural materials due
to their heterogeneous nature; but recently several
authors have applied the surface-complexation model
successfully to heterogeneous natural solids also.26,27
Consequently, the methods described in this paper
were also applied for natural and treated solids with
good repeatability. This work underlines the poten-
tial shortcomings associated with the assessment of
surface charge on the basis of proton adsorption. The
results suggest that the use of the titration method
alone may be insucient for thorough surface charge
characterization. Proton titrations should be coupled
with concurrent ion adsorption measurements to elu-
cidate surface charge properties. The PZCs of the
studied adsorbents are below 7, showing the exis-
tence of perfect charge balance in the acidic region
among the equilibrated ions in aqueous solution,
except granite sand whose pzse and pznc values
lie in basic region as well. The lakhra coal sam-
ple showed lowest value for all four PZCs owing
to humus material. The information gathered from
these experiments can be used for characterizing the
adsorption properties of the adsorbents including the
ion exchange capacity.
References
1. V. H. Olphen, An Introduction to Clay Colloid
Chemistry (Wiley, New York, 1977).
469
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