Edge structures of montmorillonite; A Density functional theory study

Sakuma, Hiroshi*; Tachi, Yukio  ; Yotsuji, Kenji; Kawamura, Katsuyuki*

Clay minerals are good adsorbents of many toxic elements of molecules in natural environment, because of their large surface areas and their high affinity to organic and inorganic materials. The adsorption sites of ions and molecules on the basal planes can be estimated by experiments and computer simulations based on the simple surface structure. While the adsorption of ions and molecules on the edge planes of clay minerals is poorly understood due to the absence of established model of the edge structures. In this study, the edge structures of montmorillonite were examined by the first-principles calculations based on the density functional theory. The effect of isomorphous substitution, layer charge, and positions of interlayer cations was evaluated for four different edge planes by calculating the surface energy. The acidity constant of the edges were calculated by an empirical method. We will discuss possible adsorption sites of cations on these edges.