We chemically modified the surface of kaolinite with nanoclusters of aluminum hydroxo cations. We have determined their composition and sizes. We have used IR spectroscopy to establish the interaction between the carbonyl and b-diketone groups of fulvic and humic acids with the Lewis acid sites: coordination unsaturated Al 3+ cations of the Al 13 nanoclusters. We have obtained spectral evidence for hydrogen bond formation between the carboxyl groups of fulvic acid and the hydroxyl groups of the aluminum hydroxo cations.Development of methods for obtaining semisynthetic sorbents and hydroxo cations of aluminum, iron, chromium, zirconium grafted to their surface may be considered as the most important achievement at the end of the last century in study of this class of disperse materials [1]. Montmorillonite and other representatives of layered silicates with hydroxo cations of the listed metals (especially aluminum hydroxo cations) inserted into their interlayer spaces have proven to be effective sorbents and catalysts [2,3]. However, there are no spectral studies in the literature, except for [4], that are directed toward determining the nature of active sites of grafted hydroxo cations of polyvalent metals.In this work, IR spectroscopy was used to study the interaction of humic and fulvic acids with active sites of oligomeric aluminum hydroxo cations, which were grafted to the surface of structurally imperfect kaolinite from the Glukhov site (Ukraine) [5]. The high dispersity of its particles (length 0.35, width 0.20, thickness 0.010-0.015 µm) results in minimal scattering of IR radiation, which allows us to obtain high-quality IR absorption spectra for substances sorbed on this kaolinite. The sorbent has only an external and rather extended specific surface area (S = 70 m 2 /g), which makes it possible to select molecules with relatively large molecular weight as spectral probes for studying it.The cation exchange capacity of Glukhov kaolinite, E = 0.25 mg-eq/g [5], ensures a high degree of grafting of the aluminum hydroxo cations to its surface according to an ion-exchange mechanism. This leads to a change in the charge on the surface of the sorbent from negative to positive: the electrokinetic potential changes from -18 mV (the pH of the aqueous dispersion is 6.21) for the original kaolinite up to +40 mV (the pH of the aqueous dispersion is 5.15) for the modified sample [6].
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