TITLE:
Determination of Crystallization Kinetics and Size Distribution Parameters of Agglomerated Calcium Carbonate Nanoparticles during the Carbonation of a Suspension of Lime
AUTHORS:
Mathilde Schnebelen, Myriam Ricaud, Alexandra Jakob, Didier Sy, Edouard Plasari, Hervé Muhr
KEYWORDS:
Lime carbonation, Crystal growth rate, Nucleation rate, Calcium carbonate
JOURNAL NAME:
Crystal Structure Theory and Applications,
Vol.4 No.2,
May
18,
2015
ABSTRACT: The reaction studied in this work is the synthesis of nanometric size calcium carbonate by carbonation
of a suspension of lime, which represents the most common industrial route. The carbonation
was proceeded in a pilot batch reactor. This article presents a method for the determination
of nucleation and crystal growth rates of calcium carbonate by following two macroscopic parameters:
the mass production rate by precipitation and the specific surface area. The results give a
constant nucleation rate around 4 × 1015m-3 ·s-1 and a decreasing crystal growth rate between 0.2
and 2 × 10-10 m·s-1. It also provides the main characteristics of the monoparticle size distributions
(i.e. the mean particle sizes and in situ coefficient of variation) in the agglomerates, which cannot
be obtained by other known methods. For the carbonation carried out in this work, the mean mass
particle size at the end of the reaction is about 300 nm and the coefficient of variation of 0.28 indicates
a narrow particle size distribution of the monoparticles.