Dissolution stoichiometry and adsorption of alkali and alkaline earth elements to the acid-reacted wollastonite surface at 25°C

Abstract

The Ca 2+ H + exchange reaction on the wollastonite surface was investigated at 25°C with both short-term (<2.5 h) and long-term (>48 h) dissolution studies. In acidic solutions, the dissolution of wollastonite is nonstoichiometric with a greater release of Ca than Si relative to the wollastonite stoichiometry. Both short-term and long-term Ca 2+ H + exchange reaction stoichiometries are 0.5. Rapid desorption of Ca 2+ from the surface of untreated wollastonite caused a rise of the suspension pH to about 10 in a couple of minutes. Therefore, potentiometric titrations were performed with an acidreacted wollastonite where most surface detachable Ca 2+ had been removed. Addition of alkali and alkaline earth metal chloride solutions to the acid-reacted wollastonite suspension results in a pH decrease with K +> Na + > Ba 2+ > Mg 2+ > Ca 2+ in equal molal solutions. This suggests that the cations in these solutions are adsorbed to the wollastonite surface. Surface protonation properties of the acid-reacted wollastonite are found to be similar to those of microporous silica but with the point of zero salt effect (pzse) of 4.5–5.5 rather than the 3.0 of microporous silica. The surface protonation-deprotonation as a function of pH is modeled with a one-site double layer model which includes Na adsorption from the background electrolyte to reasonable accuracy. The adsorption of CrO 4 2−, MoO 4 2−, Ca 2+, Mg 2+, Ba 2+, and Na + from aqueous solutions to the acidreacted wollastonite/water interface was determined as a function of the pH and ionic strength of the solution. CrO 4 2− and MoO 4 2− were not adsorbed to the wollastonite surface at pH above 3. The extent of cation adsorption increases with increasing pH and decreases with increasing ionic strength. Ca 2+ adsorption depends on both the surface area of wollastonite and total amount of Ca 2+ in the suspension. For alkaline earth metals at the same concentration, the adsorption sequence is Ba 2+> Ca 2+> Mg 2+. At pH 8.5, the maximum Ca 2+ adsorption density on the acid-reacted wollastonite is about 0.83 μmol m 2−.