Charging Behavior of the Gibbsite Basal (001) Surface in NaCl Solution Investigated by AFM Colloidal Probe Technique

The charging behavior of the gibbsite gamma-Al(OH)3 basal (001) surface in aqueous solution is important for correctly modeling the overall charging properties of gibbsite particles which controls surface phenomena such as adsorption and crystal growth. However, the question of whether the hydroxyl groups on the basal plane are proton active has been raised recently both from experimental and theoretical points of view. Using gibbsite crystals prepared from industrial Bayer process, the surface potentials of cleaved (001) surfaces were calculated from forces measured by the colloidal probe technique in 1 mM NaCl solution with differing pH. It was surprisingly found that the basal plane is proton active in pH less than 7 and protonation seems to level off at about pH 5. The potential-pH data was accurately fitted with a single pKa surface protonation model with pK(a) = 5.9 +/- 0.2.