The effect of citrate bicarbonate dithionite treatment on standard and soil smectites as evidenced by ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy

Abstract

The 57Fe Mossbauer spectra of a selection of smectitic clay fractions of CBD-treated soil samples were measured and computer-fitted with appropriate Fe3+ and Fe2 + resonances. The shape of the Fe3+ spectral envelopes suggested that all the clays were dominated by montmorillonite, contradicting the indications of the Greene-Kelly test. Experiments with untreated and CBD-treated nontronite and montmorillonite showed, however, that the apparent contradiction was probably the result of significant disruption of the smectites by the CBD treatment. The occurrence of this disruption also casts doubt on the validity of using the Greene-Kelly test on CBD-treated samples. The computer-fitted Mossbauer spectra of nontronite with different particle sizes (specifically aggregate size) demonstrated a relationship between particle size and the line-width of the Fe3+ tetrahedral site resonance. This relationship probably reflects an increasing degree of variability in the tetrahedral site with increasing particle size.