How Short-Lived Ikaite Affects Calcite Crystallization

The pathways of CaCO3 crystallization are manifold, often involving one or several metastable amorphous or nanocrystalline intermediate phases. The presence of such intermediates is often overlooked, because they are short-lived and/or occur at small molar fractions. However, their occurrence does n...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCrystal growth & design Vol. 17; no. 12; pp. 6224 - 6230
Main Authors Besselink, R, Rodriguez-Blanco, J. D, Stawski, T. M, Benning, L. G, Tobler, D. J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published American Chemical Society 06.12.2017
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Summary:The pathways of CaCO3 crystallization are manifold, often involving one or several metastable amorphous or nanocrystalline intermediate phases. The presence of such intermediates is often overlooked, because they are short-lived and/or occur at small molar fractions. However, their occurrence does not just impact the mechanisms and pathways of formation of the final stable CaCO3 phase, but also affects their crystal size, shape, and structure. Here we document the presence of a short-lived intermediate through in situ and time-resolved small and wide-angle X-ray scattering combined with high resolution electron microscope observations. When ikaite forms concomitant with the dissolution of amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) but prior to calcite formation, fairly large glendonite-type calcite crystals grow despite the presence of citrate ligands that usually reduce crystal size. These were ideal seeding crystals for further crystallization from supersaturated ions in solution. In contrast, in the absence of ikaite the crystallization of calcite proceeds through transformation from ACC, resulting in fine-grained spherulitic calcite with sizes ∼8 times smaller than when ikaite was present. Noteworthy is that the formation of the intermediate ikaite, although it consumes less than 3 mol % of the total precipitated CaCO3, still clearly affected the calcite formation mechanism.
ISSN:1528-7483
1528-7505
DOI:10.1021/acs.cgd.7b00743