• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.11-21
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• 2004

Crystallization of CaC $O_3$ from the solutions of various degrees of supersaturation was carried out by a spontaneous precipitation method. The solution was kept at $25^{\circ}C$ and pH 6.9∼8.8. The solution compositions were varied in two ways: (1) The total carbonate, [C $O_3$]$_{Τ}$, to total calcium. [Ca]$_{Τ}$, ratios vary as ; [C $O_3$]$_{Τ}$/[Ca]$_{Τ}$ >1. [C $O_3$]$_{Τ}$/[Ca]$_{Τ}$=1, and [C $O_3$]$_{Τ}$/[Ca]$_{Τ}$<1. (2) The total calcium concentration, [Ca]$_{Τ}$, held at 0.02 mo1/d $m^3$, 0.2 mo1/d $m^3$, and 0.4 mo1/d $m^3$. We found that the CaC $O_3$ phase crystallized from the solutions of [C $O_3$]$_{Τ}$/[Ca]$_{Τ}$ $\geq$ 1 was mostly calcite with less than 1% of vaterite, while the CaC $O_3$ crystals precipitated from low carbonate concentration toward calcium concentration, [C $O_3$]$_{Τ}$/[Ca]$_{Τ}$ < 1, were dominated by vaterite crystals. It appears that the polymorph of CaC $O_3$ precipitate was mainly controlled not by the calcium concentration but by the carbonate concentration during the spontaneous precipitation. Also, we found that the surface roughness of vaterite increased with decreasing carbonate concentration from 0.8 or 0.5 of [C $O_3$]$_{Τ}$/[Ca]$_{Τ}$ ratios and the surface area of vaterite increased from 5.64∼7.34 $\mu\textrm{m}$ to 8.39∼10.3 $\mu\textrm{m}$.