Cryosphere
plays an important role in the global circulation of
various chemical substances through the chemical processes that occur
therein. Metal ions are adsorbed on adsorbents, such as ferric (oxy)hydroxides
(FeOxH) and iron manganese oxides, and can be accumulated in the frozen
phases. The metal ions can be supplied from the cryosphere to the
hydrosphere in the bioavailable form by the desorption of metal ions
during ice melting. Therefore, quantitative evaluation of the adsorption
of metal ions in the frozen state is important to understand their
exchange between the frozen and solution phases. Here, we propose
in situ synchrotron X-ray fluorescence (XRF) as an appropriate method
to quantitatively measure the adsorption of metal ions on FeOxH in
a frozen solution. When NaCl solution freezes, a freeze-concentrated
solution (FCS) is separated from ice. XRF imaging confirms that the
first-row transition metal ions, that is, Mn2+, Co2+, Cu2+, and Zn2+, are enriched with
FeOxH in the FCS. While in the presence of tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane
(tris), Cu2+ forms a stable tris-complex and does not adsorb
on FeOxH, other metal ions are partially adsorbed on FeOxH. Therefore,
Cu2+ is always dissolved in the FCS, but other metal ions
are distributed in both FCS and FeOxH. The linear correlations between
the normalized XRF intensity of Cu2+ and those of other
metal ions dissolved in the FCS are confirmed. Also, the normalized
XRF intensity of Fe in FeOxH is proportional to those of the adsorbed
metal ions. Thus, the XRF signals of Cu and Fe are considered to represent
the other metal ions contained in the FCS and those adsorbed on FeOxH,
respectively. The multivariate regression analysis provides the relative
contributions of these two different states of the metal ion in frozen
samples. From the regression coefficients, the adsorption ratio of
the metal ion in the frozen phase can be estimated. The time change
in the adsorption ratio is also successfully evaluated using this
method.