Polymeric organic surface coatings are ubiquitous in natural and engineered aqueous systems. The presence of these coatings can significantly influence iron (hydr)oxide nanoparticle formation in both environments, which is of great importance as these nanoparticles can sequester and transport toxic metal ions. To understand how organic-coated substrates (e.g., polyaspartate and alginate) can affect iron oxide nanoparticle formation, we utilized simultaneous grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) and SAXS to observe in situ homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation and nanoparticle-organic coating interactions. Using multiple complementary surface characterization techniques, we concluded that the degree of hydrophilicity controls heterogeneous nucleation on organic-coated substrates rather than surface charge contributions. These results provide new information for elucidating the effects of polymeric organic substrate coatings on the size, volume, and location of nucleating iron (hydr)oxides, which can help predict the behavior of nanoparticles and contaminant uptake in waters and wastewater where organic coatings are abundant.

Iron (hydr)oxide nanoparticle formation on polyaspartate- and alginate-surface coatings

246th National Meeting (2013)

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