Direct Measurements of the Forces between Silver and Mica in Humic Substance-Rich Solutions

Deposition of engineered nanoparticles onto porous media from flowing suspensions is important for soil and groundwater quality. The deposition mechanism is controlled by interaction forces between particles and collectors. We investigated the origin and magnitude of opposing forces between silver and mica surfaces (representing nanosilver and sand grains) in solutions relevant to agricultural soils with direct measurements using a surface force apparatus. Solutions of variable NaNO3, Ca­(NO3)2, and humic acid (HA) concentrations were used to differentiate individual contributing forces and quantify surface properties. The measured Hamaker constant for silver–water–mica was consistent with Lifshitz theory. Our results indicate that HA forms an adsorbed surface layer, but its charge, thicknesses, compressibility, and mass are significantly larger on mica than silver. Ca2+ primarily reduced the differences between the initially adsorbed HA layer properties on each surface, making them more similar. Force–distance profiles indicate that, when silver–mica systems were exposed to HA, osmotic–steric, electrostatic, and van der Waals forces dominate. Soft particle theory was deemed inappropriate for this system. Derjaguin’s approximation was utilized to translate force measurements into interaction energy between nanosilver particles and mica collectors. We propose attachment efficiency estimates from measured surface properties, which suggest high particle mobility when nanosilver is applied to HA-rich agricultural soils with modest ionic strength.