TY - JOUR A1 - Paskin, A. A1 - Couasnon, T. A1 - Perez, J. P. H. A1 - Lobanov, S. S. A1 - Blukis, R. A1 - Reinsch, Stefan A1 - Benning, L. G. T1 - Nucleation and Crystallization of Ferrous Phosphate Hydrate via an Amorphous Intermediate JF - Journal of the American Chemical Society N2 - The fundamental processes of nucleation and crystallization are widely observed in systems relevant to material synthesis and biomineralization; yet most often, their mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we unravel the discrete stages of nucleation and crystallization of Fe3(PO4)2·8H2O (vivianite). We experimentally monitored the formation and transformation from ions to solid products by employing correlated, time-resolved in situ and ex situ approaches. We show that vivianite crystallization occurs in distinct stages via a transient amorphous precursor phase. The metastable amorphous ferrous phosphate (AFEP) intermediate could be isolated and stabilized. We resolved the differences in bonding environments, structure, and symmetric changes of the Fe site during the transformation of AFEP to crystalline vivianite through synchrotron X-ray absorption spectroscopy at the Fe K-edge. This intermediate AFEP phase has a lower water content and less distorted local symmetry, compared to the crystalline end product vivianite. Our combined results indicate that a nonclassical, hydration-induced nucleation and transformation driven by the incorporation and rearrangement of water molecules and ions (Fe2+ and PO4 3−) within the AFEP is the dominating mechanism of vivianite formation at moderately high to low vivianite supersaturations (saturation index ≤ 10.19). We offer fundamental insights into the aqueous, amorphous-to-crystalline transformations in the Fe2+−PO4 system and highlight the different attributes of the AFEP, compared to its crystalline counterpart. KW - Nucleation KW - Crystallization KW - Vivianite KW - Ferrous phosphate hydrate PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-580696 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.3c01494 SN - 0002-7863 VL - 145 IS - 28 SP - 15137 EP - 15151 PB - ACS Publications AN - OPUS4-58069 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Chen, Z. A1 - Perez, J. P. H. A1 - Smales, Glen Jacob A1 - Blukis, R. A1 - Pauw, Brian Richard A1 - Stammeier, J. A. A1 - Radnik, Jörg A1 - Smith, A. J. A1 - Benning, L. G. T1 - Impact of organic phosphates on the structure and composition of short-range ordered iron nanophases JF - Nanoscale advances N2 - Organic phosphates (OP) are important nutrient components for living cells in natural environments, where they readily interact with ubiquitous iron phases such as hydrous ferric oxide, ferrihydrite (FHY). FHY partakes in many key bio(geo)chemical reactions including iron-mediated carbon storage in soils, or iron-storage in living organisms. However, it is still unknown how OP affects the formation, structure and properties of FHY. Here, we document how β-glycerophosphate (GP), a model OP ligand, affects the structure and properties of GP–FHY nanoparticles synthesized by coprecipitation at variable nominal molar P/Fe ratios (0.01 to 0.5). All GP–FHY precipitates were characterized by a maximum solid P/Fe ratio of 0.22, irrespective of the nominal P/Fe ratio. With increasing nominal P/Fe ratio, the specific surface area of the GP–FHY precipitates decreased sharply from 290 to 3 m2 g−1, accompanied by the collapse of their pore structure. The Fe–P local bonding environment gradually transitioned from a bidentate binuclear geometry at low P/Fe ratios to monodentate mononuclear geometry at high P/Fe ratios. This transition was accompanied by a decrease in coordination number of edge-sharing Fe polyhedra, and the loss of the corner-sharing Fe polyhedra. We show that Fe(III) polymerization is impeded by GP, and that the GP–FHY structure is highly dependent on the P/Fe ratio. We discuss the role that natural OP-bearing Fe(III) nanophases have in biogeochemical reactions between Fe–P and C species in aquatic systems. KW - Organic phosphates KW - Iron nanophases KW - Scattering KW - Diffraction KW - Nanomaterials KW - Coprecipitation KW - Carbon storage PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-599399 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d3na01045g SN - 2516-0230 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) CY - Cambridge AN - OPUS4-59939 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -