Latent disciplinal clashes concerning the batch dissolution of minerals, and their wider implications

Abstract

Environmental contextMineral dissolution kinetics are important to understand natural processes including those increasingly used to store waste carbon dioxide and highly radio-active nuclides, and those involved in the amelioration of climate change and sea-level rise. We highlight a mistake made in the fundamental science that has retarded progress in the field for over 40 years. Its removal suggests improved ways to approach dissolution studies. AbstractMineral dissolution kinetics are fundamental to biogeochemistry, and to the application of science to reduce the deleterious effects of humanity’s waste products, e.g. CO2 and radio-nuclides. However, a mistake made in the selection of the rate equation appropriate for use at the macro-scale of the aquatic environment has stymied growth in major aspects of the subject for some 40 years. This paper identifies the mistake, shows how it represents a latent disciplinal clash between two rate equations, and explores the misunderstandings that resulted from it. The paper also briefly explores other disciplinal clashes. Using the example of calcite dissolution, the paper also shows how the phenomenon of ‘non-ideal’ dissolution, which is prevalent in alumino-silicate mineral dissolution, as well as with calcite, has obscured the clash. The paper provides new information on plausible mechanisms, the absence of which has contributed to the problem. Finally, it argues that disciplinal clashes need to be minimised so that a rigorous description of dissolution at the large scale can be matched to findings at the atomic, or near-atomic, scale.