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Mineralogical Society of America, American Mineralogist, 11(106), p. 1736-1743, 2021

DOI: 10.2138/am-2021-7835

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Interfacial structures and acidity constants of goethite from first-principles Molecular Dynamics simulations

Journal article published in 2021 by Yingchun Zhang ORCID, Xiandong Liu ORCID, Jun Cheng, Xiancai Lu
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we report a first-principles Molecular Dynamics (FPMD) study of interfacial structures and acidity constants of goethite. The pKa values of the groups on (010), (110), and (021) surfaces (space group Pbnm) are derived with the FPMD based vertical energy gap technique. The results indicate that major reactive groups include ≡Fe2OH2 and ≡FeOH2 on (010), ≡FeOH2, ≡Fe3OLH, and ≡Fe3OUH on (110), and ≡FeOhH2 and ≡Fe2OH on (021). The interfacial structures were characterized in detail with a focus on the hydrogen bonding environment. With the calculated pKa values, the point of zero charges (PZCs) of the three surfaces are derived and the overall PZC range of goethite is found to be consistent with the experiment. We further discuss the potential applications of these results in future studies toward understanding the environmental processes of goethite.