Impact of Antimony(V) on Iron(II)-Catalyzed Ferrihydrite Transformation Pathways: A Novel Mineral Switch for Feroxyhyte Formation

The environmental mobility of antimony (Sb) is controlled by interactions with iron (Fe) oxides, such as ferrihydrite. Under near-neutral pH conditions, Fe(II) catalyzes the transformation of ferrihydrite to more stable phases, thereby potentially altering the partitioning and speciation of associated Sb. Although largely unexplored, Sb itself may also influence ferrihydrite transformation pathways. Here, we investigated the impact of Sb on the Fe(II)-induced transformation of ferrihydrite at pH 7 across a range of Sb(V) loadings (Sb:Fe(III) molar ratios of 0, 0.003, 0.016, and 0.08). At low and medium Sb loadings, Fe(II) induced rapid transformation of ferrihydrite to goethite, with some lepidocrocite forming as an intermediate phase. In contrast, the highest Sb:Fe(III) ratio inhibited lepidocrocite formation, decreased the extent of goethite formation, and instead resulted in substantial formation of feroxyhyte, a rarely reported FeOOH polymorph. At all Sb loadings, the transformation of ferrihydrite was paralleled by a decrease in aqueous and phosphate-extractable Sb concentrations. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy showed that this Sb immobilization was attributable to incorporation of Sb into Fe(III) octahedral sites of the neo-formed minerals. Our results suggest that Fe oxide transformation pathways in Sb-contaminated systems may strongly differ from the well-known pathways under Sb-free conditions.