Environ. Sci. Technol. 2007, 41, 4367-4374
Environmental Applications of Chemically Pure Natural Ferrihydrite J A N F I L I P , †,§ R A D E K Z B O R I L , * ,†,‡ OLDRICH SCHNEEWEISS,# JOSEF ZEMAN,§ MIROSLAV CERNIK,¶ PETR KVAPIL,¶ AND MICHAL OTYEPKA‡ Centre for Nanomaterial Research, Palacky University, Svobody 26, 771 46 Olomouc, Czech Republic, Institute of Geological Sciences, Masaryk University, Kotla´ˇska´ 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic, Department of Physical Chemistry, Palacky University, Svobody 26, 771 46 Olomouc, Czech Republic, Institute of Physics of Materials, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Zˇ izˇkova 22, 616 62 Brno, Czech Republic, and Technical University of Liberec, Research Center ARTEC, Ha´lkova 6, 461 17 Liberec, Czech Republic
Fresh precipitates, deposited from seepage waters of complex-ore mine-tailing impoundment at Zlate´ Hory, Czech Republic, were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, low temperature and infield Mo¨ ssbauer spectroscopy, and Brunauer-EmmettTeller surface area measurements. The prevailing phases (∼96 wt %) found in precipitates are poorly crystalline, 2-6 nm sized two-line ferrihydrite, forming globular aggregates of about 150 nm in diameter, rimmed by acicular irregular nanocrystals of goethite. These nanocrystalline ferrihydrite-goethite precipitates are of a relatively high chemical purity (∼3% SiO2, Zn ∼ 1300 ppm, trace and rare earth elements
