DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Sulfate-Controlled Heterogeneous CaCO3 Nucleation and Its Non-linear Interfacial Energy Evolution

Journal Article · · Environmental Science and Technology

Unveiling the effects of an environmental abundant anion “sulfate” on the formation of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) is essential to understand the formation mechanisms of biominerals like corals and brachiopod shells, as well as the scale formation in desalination systems. However, it was experimentally challenging to elucidate the sulfate–CaCO3 interactions at the explicit first step of CaCO3 formation: nucleation. In addition, there is limited quantitative information on the precise control of nucleation kinetics. Here, heterogeneous CaCO3 nucleation is monitored in real time as a function of sulfate concentrations (0–10 mM Na2SO4) using synchrotron-based grazing incidence X-ray scattering techniques. The results showed that sulfate can be incorporated in the nuclei, resulting in a nearly 90% decrease in the CaCO3 nucleation rate, causing a 120% increase in the CaCO3 nucleus size, and inhibiting the vaterite-to-calcite phase transformation. Moreover, this work quantitatively relates sulfate concentrations to the effective interfacial energies of CaCO3 and finds a non-linear trend, suggesting that CaCO3 heterogeneous nucleation is more sensitive at a low sulfate concentration. This study can be readily extended to study other additives and obtain quantitative relationships between additive concentrations and CaCO3 interfacial energies, a key step toward achieving natural and engineered controls on CaCO3 nucleation.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Contributing Organization:
Energy Frontier Research Center
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1840567
Journal Information:
Environmental Science and Technology, Journal Name: Environmental Science and Technology Journal Issue: 16 Vol. 55; ISSN 0013-936X
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (55)

Taking Advantage of Disorder: Amorphous Calcium Carbonate and Its Roles in Biomineralization journal June 2003
Nanoscale Effects on Thermodynamics and Phase Equilibria in Oxide Systems journal July 2011
The solubility of calcite in seawater solutions of various magnesium concentration, at 25 °C and one atmosphere total pressure journal April 1984
A new kinetic approach to modeling water-rock interaction: The role of nucleation, precursors, and Ostwald ripening journal October 1990
Petroleum, oil field waters, and authigenic mineral assemblages Are they in metastable equilibrium in hydrocarbon reservoirs journal July 1993
The crystallization of calcium carbonate journal August 1976
Correction for solute/solvent interaction extends accurate freezing point depression theory to high concentration range journal December 1994
Micro-XANES mapping of sulphur and its association with magnesium and phosphorus in the shell of the brachiopod, Terebratulina retusa journal August 2008
The role of sulfate groups in controlling CaCO3 polymorphism journal November 2010
Crystallization of CaCO3 in the presence of sulfate and additives: Experimental and molecular dynamics simulation studies journal July 2012
A study of CaCO3 scale formation and inhibition in RO and NF membrane processes journal June 2007
Heterogeneous Nucleation and Growth of Nanoparticles at Environmental Interfaces journal August 2016
Surface Wetting Controls Calcium Carbonate Crystallization Kinetics journal April 2019
Ionic Strength-Controlled Mn (Hydr)oxide Nanoparticle Nucleation on Quartz: Effect of Aqueous Mn(OH) 2 journal December 2015
Incorporating Nanoscale Effects into a Continuum-Scale Reactive Transport Model for CO 2 -Deteriorated Cement journal September 2017
Wollastonite Carbonation in Water-Bearing Supercritical CO 2 : Effects of Particle Size journal October 2017
Salinity-Induced Reduction of Interfacial Energies and Kinetic Factors during Calcium Carbonate Nucleation on Quartz journal May 2019
Structural Match of Heterogeneously Nucleated Mn(OH) 2 (s) Nanoparticles on Quartz under Various pH Conditions journal October 2016
Mechanistic Insights into the Crystallization of Amorphous Calcium Carbonate (ACC) journal May 2012
Calcium Carbonate Formation and Dissolution journal February 2007
In Situ Observations of Nanoparticle Early Development Kinetics at Mineral−Water Interfaces journal November 2010
In Situ Determination of Interfacial Energies between Heterogeneously Nucleated CaCO 3 and Quartz Substrates: Thermodynamics of CO 2 Mineral Trapping journal June 2012
Control of Heterogeneous Fe(III) (Hydr)oxide Nucleation and Growth by Interfacial Energies and Local Saturations journal August 2013
Aluminum Affects Heterogeneous Fe(III) (Hydr)oxide Nucleation, Growth, and Ostwald Ripening journal December 2013
Interfacial Energies for Heterogeneous Nucleation of Calcium Carbonate on Mica and Quartz journal May 2014
Different Arsenate and Phosphate Incorporation Effects on the Nucleation and Growth of Iron(III) (Hydr)oxides on Quartz journal October 2014
Effects of Sulfate during CO 2 Attack on Portland Cement and Their Impacts on Mechanical Properties under Geologic CO 2 Sequestration Conditions journal May 2015
Environmentally Abundant Anions Influence the Nucleation, Growth, Ostwald Ripening, and Aggregation of Hydrous Fe(III) Oxides journal May 2012
Molecular recognition in biomineralization journal March 1988
Formation of calcium sulfate through the aggregation of sub-3 nanometre primary species journal April 2016
Stable prenucleation mineral clusters are liquid-like ionic polymers journal September 2011
Ion-association complexes unite classical and non-classical theories for the biomimetic nucleation of calcium phosphate journal February 2013
Dehydration and crystallization of amorphous calcium carbonate in solution and in air journal January 2014
Calcium carbonate nucleation driven by ion binding in a biomimetic matrix revealed by in situ electron microscopy journal January 2015
The apparent activation energy and pre-exponential kinetic factor for heterogeneous calcium carbonate nucleation on quartz journal September 2018
Antiscaling efficacy of CaCO 3 and CaSO 4 on polyethylene glycol (PEG)-modified reverse osmosis membranes in the presence of humic acid: interplay of membrane surface properties and water chemistry journal January 2017
Thermodynamics of solvation of ions. Part 5.—Gibbs free energy of hydration at 298.15 K journal January 1991
Energetic clues to pathways to biomineralization: Precursors, clusters, and nanoparticles journal August 2004
Animal evolution, bioturbation, and the sulfate concentration of the oceans journal May 2009
Transformation and crystallization energetics of synthetic and biogenic amorphous calcium carbonate journal September 2010
Polysaccharide chemistry regulates kinetics of calcite nucleation through competition of interfacial energies journal May 2013
Nucleation of metastable aragonite CaCO 3 in seawater journal March 2015
Refinement of the atomic parameters of α-quartz journal June 1963
Impact of Anthropogenic CO2 on the CaCO3 System in the Oceans journal July 2004
Sea Urchin Spine Calcite Forms via a Transient Amorphous Calcium Carbonate Phase journal November 2004
Stable Prenucleation Calcium Carbonate Clusters journal December 2008
The Initial Stages of Template-Controlled CaCO3 Formation Revealed by Cryo-TEM journal March 2009
In situ TEM imaging of CaCO3 nucleation reveals coexistence of direct and indirect pathways journal September 2014
Aragonite-calcite seas—Quantifying the gray area journal February 2015
Dolomitization kinetics of hydrothermal bombs and natural settings journal July 1994
Structure of vaterite and infrared spectra journal August 1969
Principles of Crystal Nucleation and Growth journal January 2003
Thermal expansion of gypsum investigated by neutron powder diffraction journal August 1996
Structure and carbonate orientation of vaterite (CaCO3) journal February 2009
Infrared Spectra of Amorphous and Crystalline Calcium Carbonate. journal January 1991