Popis: |
Organic ligands, such as EDTA, accelerate the dissolution of silicate and oxide minerals. In natural systems, oxyanions can compete with organic ligands for mineral surface sites thereby affecting ligand-promoted dissolution rates, either enhancing or inhibiting dissolution, depending upon pH. The influence of selenite, molybdate and phosphate on the EDTA-promoted dissolution of goethite has been examined and a mechanism proposed for the observed differences in dissolution rates over a pH range of 4–8. We propose that the surface complex formed by EDTA is the controlling factor for the observed dissolution rate, with mononuclear complexes accelerating dissolution compared to bi- or multinuclear complexes. Dissolution results from our experiments suggest that EDTA forms multinuclear complexes at pH values ⩾6 and mononuclear complexes at pH values |