Studies of Morphology and Size of Calcium Carbonate Crystals Nucleating on Surfaces of Various Materials

Abstract

The effects of material surface characteristics on the morphology and size of calcium carbonate crystals nucleating under cold wall pipe flow conditions were studied. We found that high surface energy materials could accelerate the conversion of crystals from vaterite to calcite, and the crystal size increased. Aragonite was found to be absent throughout the experiment. The deposition of calcium carbonate crystals is a layer-over-layer formation process. In the initial deposition period, the crystals are large and continue to grow until covering the material surface. At subsequent stages, the crystals forming on the existing fouling become much smaller. Studying the influence of material surface on the morphology and size of calcium carbonate crystals is important both for the reasonable selection of industrial materials and for the synthesis of calcium carbonate crystals with certain morphology and size.