Deposition of TiO₂ Nanoparticles onto Silica Measured Using a Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation Monitoring

Abstract

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles introduced into subsurface environments may lead to contamination of drinking water supplies and can act as colloidal carriers for sorbed contaminants. A model laboratory system was used to examine the influence of water chemistry on the physicochemical properties of TiO2 nanoparticles and their deposition. Deposition rates of TiO2 particles onto a silica surface were measured over a broad range of solution conditions (pH and ionic strength) using a quartz crystal microbalance with energy dissipation monitoring (QCM-D). Higher particle deposition rates were observed under favorable interaction conditions (i.e., in the presence of attractive electrostatic interactions) in comparison to unfavorable deposition conditions where electrostatic repulsion dominates particle-surface interactions. Nanoparticle sizes were characterized by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). These analyses confirmed the nanoscale of the system under study as well as the presence of TiO2 aggregates in some cases. TiO2 deposition behavior onto silica measured using QCM-D was generally found to be in qualitative agreement with the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory of colloidal stability.

Role of Caustic Addition in Bitumen–Clay Interactions

“…[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] The basic principle of the technique relies on monitoring the resonance frequency and dissipation of a piezoelectric quartz crystal sensor. The application of QCM-D as an ultrasensitive mass balance originates from the work of Sauerbrey, 39 who established an empirical relationship between the added (deposited) mass to the sensor and the resonance frequency shift of the sensor given by Eq.…”

Assessing the colloidal properties of engineered nanoparticles in water: case studies from fullerene C60 nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes

“…Usually, the flow chambers of the QCM use much simpler geometries, such as in radial stagnation point and parallel-plate flow systems. To date, the QCM has been used to study the deposition of fullerene C 60 nanoparticles, [113,118] titanium dioxide nanoparticles, [119] quantum dots, [120] viruses, [121] and ZVI nanoparticles [122,123] on silica surfaces.…”

Transport and retention behaviors of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in iron oxide-coated quartz sand: Effects of pH, ionic strength, and humic acid

“…Previous studies also revealed that nTiO 2 could facilitate the transport of coexisting pollutants in the natural environment due to the adsorption of the environmental contaminants onto nTiO 2 surfaces [10,11]. Hence, a great number of studies investigated the fate and transport of nTiO 2 in soils and groundwater [2,4,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28].…”