Due to
the potential shortage of phosphate (P) rock resources and a faster
growth in demand for phosphate fertilizers, unraveling the kinetics
of calcium phosphate (Ca–P) crystallization and dissolution
is important for understanding the P mobility and bioavailability.
Plants have developed different strategies, such as carboxylic acid
exudation into the rhizosphere, to cope with low P bioavailability
through dissolution of sparingly soluble Ca–P minerals. However,
the dissolution kinetics may be more complicated in the presence of
both carboxylate and hydroxyl groups in organic acids. Here in situ
atomic force microscopy (AFM) is used to directly observe the kinetics
of nanoscale dissolution on the (010) surface of dicalcium phosphate
dihydrate (brushite, CaHPO4·2H2O) in the
presence of succinic acid (SA, 0 alcoholic hydroxyl (−OH)),
malic acid (MA, 1 −OH), and tartaric acid (TA, 2 −OH),
respectively, over a broad concentration range. We demonstrate that
the role of dicarboxylic acids varies with the number of alcoholic
hydroxyls and that fully deprotonated hydroxy-dicarboxylic acids play
a critical role in controlling the dissolution rate of steps and morphology
modification of etch pits. Direct AFM imaging shows that only TA can
adsorb along specific directions of the [1̅01̅]
Cc
steps on the brushite (010) surface at pH ≥
6 to induce the formation of trapezium-shaped etch pits. This depends
on specific molecular recognition and stereochemical conformity between
hydroxyl-carboxyl of TA and atomic [1̅01̅]
Cc
steps by molecular modeling using density functional
theory. The effectiveness of alcoholic hydroxyls can be enhanced by
deprotonated brushite interfaces with the increase of the solution
pH. This combined AFM and molecular modeling study may provide microscopic
insights into understanding P mobilization by dissolution in soils.