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The adsorption of oxalate on a model aluminum oxide, corundum (alpha-Al2O3), has been examined over a broad range of oxalate concentrations (0.125-25.0 mM) and pH conditions (2-10). In situ attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) measurements indicate that at low to intermediate concentrations ([oxalate] < or = 2.50 mM), oxalate adsorbs to corundum predominantly as a bidentate, mononuclear, inner-sphere complex involving both carboxyl groups. Significant contributions from outer-spherically bound oxalate and aqueous Ox(2-) are additionally observed at higher oxalate concentrations. Consistent with the ATR-FTIR findings, macroscopic adsorption data measured for oxalate concentrations of 0.125-2.50 mM can be generally well modeled with a single bidentate, inner-sphere oxalate complex using the charge distribution multisite complexation (CD-MUSIC) model. However, at intermediate oxalate concentrations (0.50 and 1.25 mM) and pH <5, the extent of oxalate adsorption measured experimentally is found to fall significantly below that predicted by CD-MUSIC simulations. The latter finding is interpreted in terms of competition for oxalate from dissolved Al(III), the formation of which is promoted by the dissolution-enhancing properties of the adsorbed oxalate anion. In accordance with this expectation, increasing concentrations of dissolved Al(III) in solution are found to significantly decrease the extent of oxalate adsorption on corundum under acidic pH conditions, presumably through promoting the formation of Al(III)-oxalate complexes with reduced affinities for the corundum surface compared with the uncomplexed oxalate anion.

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Historic placer gold mining in the Clear Creek tributary to the Sacramento River (Redding, CA) has highly impacted the hydrology and ecology of an important salmonid spawning stream. Restoration of the watershed utilized dredge tailings contaminated with mercury (Hg) introduced during gold mining, posing the possibility of persistent Hg release to the surrounding environment, including the San Francisco Bay Delta. Column experiments have been performed to evaluate the extent of Hg transport under chemical conditions potentially similar to those in river restoration projects utilizing dredge tailings such as at Clear Creek. Physicochemical perturbations, in the form of shifts in column influent ionic strength and the presence of a low molecular weight organic acid, were applied to coarse and fine sand placer tailings containing 109-194 and 69-90 ng of Hg/g, respectively. Significant concentrations of mercury, up to 16 microg/L, leach from these sediments in dissolved and particle-associated forms. Sequential chemical extractions (SCE) of these tailings indicate that elemental Hg initially introduced during gold mining has been transformed to readily soluble species, such as mercury oxides and chlorides (3-4%), intermediately extractable phases that likely include (in)organic sorption complexes and amalgams (75-87%), and fractions of highly insoluble forms such as mercury sulfides (6-20%; e.g., cinnabar and metacinnabar). Extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopic analysis of colloids obtained from column effluent identified cinnabar particles as the dominant mobile mercury-bearing phase. The fraction of intermediately extractable Hg phases also likely includes mobile colloids to which Hg is adsorbed.