Roles of Additives on Crystal Growth Rate of Precipitated Calcium Carbonate

Abstract

The characteristics of nucleation and the crystal growth of aragonite-precipitated calcium carbonate in Ca(OH)2 – MgCl2 – CO2 system by a carbonation process is investigated. MgCl2, in this study, was added in order to increase the formation yield of aragonite precipitated calcium carbonate. Optimum conditions of the concentration of the reactants, the temperature and the amount of additives were studied. The formation yield of calcite gradually decreased, and the formation yield of aragonite increased with the addition of MgCl2. A higher formation yield of above 98% for aragonite is obtained by the adding of the Mg2+ ion in a 0.2M Ca(OH)2 – 0.6M MgCl2 – CO2 system at 80. The nucleation rate increased as the temperature decreased and as the CO2 gas flow rate increased. The particle size and aspect ratio increased at a high temperature, a low flow rate of gas, and a high concentration of Ca(OH)2 slurry. Small-sized aragonite was obtained at a low temperature. The increase in crystal size with the decrease in the CO2 gas flow rate can be explained by the decrease in the nucleation rate, in addition to the increase in the crystal growth rate resulting from the decrease in the dissolution rate to CO3 2- ion.