Influence of chromium on the local structure and morphology of ferric oxyhydroxides

Abstract The extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) method and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have been used for characterizing the local structure and morphology of ferric oxyhydroxides, α-FeOOH and γ-FeOOH, with and without chromium. These ferric oxyhydroxide powders were prepared from aqueous solutions containing iron and chromium ions. Radial structural functions for iron obtained by Fe K edge EXAFS spectra showed that the linkage of structural units formed by FeO6 octahedra in γ-FeOOH is distorted by chromium addition, while such distortion in α-FeOOH is not clearly detected. On the other hand, Cr K edge EXAFS spectra showed that the local structure around chromium does not necessarily correspond to the local structure around of iron, which is observed by Fe K edge EXAFS spectra. This suggests that the structural units containing iron and chromium are heterogeneously distributed in these ferric oxyhydroxides. The local structural information was discussed coupled with morphological features of these ferric oxyhydroxides observed by TEM.