First principles characterization of silicate sites in clay surfaces

Aluminosilicate clays like Montmorillonite (MMT) and Muscovite Mica (MT) have siloxane cavities on the basal plane. The hydroxyl groups localized in these cavities and van der Waals (vdW) forces contribute significantly to adsorption processes. However, the basal sites are found to be difficult to characterize experimentally. Here, (001) surfaces of MMT and MT clays were investigated using first-principles calculations to understand how these silicate surface sites are influenced by hydroxyl groups and the effective role of inner layer vdW interactions. Based on density-functional theory (DFT) within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA), different types of exchange–correlation functionals were tested to check the effect of vdW dispersion correction. Noncontact atomic force microscopy (nc-AFM), X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) in the near-edge region and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (SS-NMR) spectroscopy were simulated. In both clays, the oxygen surface sites are directly affected by the intralayer interaction through hydroxyl groups. Our results indicated that the chemical environment of the hydroxyl groups is distinct in the MMT and MT structures. The vdW correction was essential for a better description of the surface oxygen sites and correctly describes the similarity between both clays. Particularly, the bulk apical oxygen sites in the MT structure are less influenced by vdW interaction. Compared to MMT, the silicon surface sites of MT are more sensitive to the intralayer changes in Si–Oapical–Al and with less effect of the hydroxyl groups. These results provide a clear understanding of influence of the siloxane cavity on the oxygen and silicon surface sites in aluminosilicates.