A systematic determination of diffusion coefficients of trace elements in open and restricted diffusive layers used by the diffusive gradients in a thin film technique

• Determining elemental diffusion coefficients in open and restricted diffusive gels.
• The DGT times-series method was preferred over the diffusion cell method.
• Partial negative charges enhanced diffusion of cations relative to oxyanions.
• Proposed this was due to partial hydrolysis of acrylamide groups to acrylic acid.

A systematic comparison of the diffusion coefficients of cations (Al, Cd, Co, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn) and oxyanions (Al, As, Mo, Sb, V, W) in open (ODL) and restricted (RDL) diffusive layers used by the DGT technique was undertaken. Diffusion coefficients were measured using both the diffusion cell (Dcell) method at pH 4.00 and the DGT time-series (DDGT) method at pH 4.01 and 7.04 (pH 8.30 was used instead of 7.04 for Al) using the Chelex-Metsorb mixed binding layer. The performance of Chelex-Metsorb as a new DGT binding layer for Al uptake was also evaluated for the first time. Reasonable agreement was observed between Dcell and DDGT measurements for both ODL and RDL, except for V and W. The ratios of Dcell/DDGT for V of 0.44 and 0.39, and for W of 0.66 and 0.63 with ODL and RDL respectively, were much lower due to the formation of a high proportion of polyoxometalate species at the higher concentrations required with the Dcell measurements. This is the first time that D values have been reported for several oxyanions using RDL. Except for Al at pH 8.30 with ODL, all DDGT measurements were retarded relative to diffusion coefficients in water (DW) for both diffusive hydrogels. Diffusion in RDL was further retarded compared with ODL, for all elements (0.66–0.78) with both methods. However, the degree of retardation observed changed for cations and anions at each pH. At pH 7.04 cations had a slightly higher DDGT and oxyanions had a slightly lower DDGT than at pH 4.01 for both ODL and RDL. It is proposed that this is due to partial formation of acrylic acid functional groups (pKa ≈4.5), which would be fully deprotonated at pH 7.04 (negative) and mostly protonated at pH 4.01 (neutral). As Al changes from being cationic at pH 4.01 to anionic at pH 8.30 the results were more complex.

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