Theoretical study of the acid-base properties of the montmorillonite/electrolyte interface: influence of the surface heterogeneity and ionic strength on the potentiometric titration curves

The parallel shape of the potentiometric titration curves for montmorillonite suspension is explained using the surface complexation model and taking into account the surface heterogeneity. The homogeneous models give accurate predictions only if they assume unphysically large values of the equilibrium constants for the exchange process occurring on the basal plane. However, the assumption that the basal plane is energetically heterogeneous allows to fit the experimental data (reported by Avena and De Pauli [M. Avena, C.P. De Pauli, J. Colloid Interface Sci. 202 (1998) 195-204]) for reasonable values of exchange equilibrium constant equal to 1.26 (suggested by Fletcher and Sposito [P. Fletcher, G. Sposito, Clay Miner. 24 (1989) 375-391]). Moreover, we observed the typical behavior of point of zero net proton charge (pznpc) as a function of logarithm of the electrolyte concentration (log[C]). We showed that the slope of the linear dependence, pznpc=f(log[C]), is proportional to the number of isomorphic substitutions in the crystal phase, which was also observed in the experimental studies.