Thermodynamic evaluation of a partial charge model assumptionfor the dissolved silica system

Abstract

The Partial Charge Model was developed to predict the hydroxylation, polymerization, and precipitation of ions. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the Partial Charge Model for describing the polymerization of silica in aqueous solutions. The Partial Charge Model predicts the stability of ions and complexes based on the assumption that the stable species will have the same electronegativity as the mean electronegativity of the solution. The silica system was chosen for model validation because of the rare availability of self-consistent thermodynamic data on many dissolved but polymerized silicate anions, including both linear and cyclical species. The electronegativity of each species was calculated using the Partial Charge Model and the results were plotted against the stability constants for the ions. The silicate anions segregated into groups on the plot based on the number of charges per silicon atom in the polymer. Plots of the log of the stability constant versus the change in electronegativity produced a linear relationship for the silica polymers containing one negative charge per silicon atom, which resulted in an r2 of 0.9978. Thus, the Partial Charge Model successfully describes the thermodynamics of silica polymerization in aqueous solution for species that are sufficiently alike, but was not accurate for all silica species.