1. Introduction
The following mineral salts belong to the K
2O-CaO-SO
3-H
2O system: potassium sulfate K
2SO
4, potassium pyrosulfate K
2S
2O
7, potassium hydrosulfates KHSO
4, K
3H(SO
4)
2, K
9H
7(SO
4)
8·H
2O, calcium sulfate hemihydrate CaSO
4·0.5H
2O, calcium sulfate dihydrate CaSO
4·2H
2O, syngenite K
2Ca(SO
4)
2·H
2O, and gorgeyite K
2SO
4·5CaSO
4·H
2O [
1,
2]. These minerals existing in different subsystems of K
2O-CaO-SO
3-H
2O system [
3,
4,
5,
6,
7], especially syngenite K
2Ca(SO
4)
2·H
2O, are important for several applications, among which are fertilizer industry [
8,
9], production of construction materials [
10,
11,
12], inorganic materials with specific properties [
13], creation of bioresorbable and biocompatible materials [
14,
15], creation of Martian regolith simulants [
16,
17,
18].
Syngenite K
2Ca(SO
4)
2·H
2O can be synthesized using several different techniques: by crystallization at room temperature (20 ◦C and ∼50% relative humidity) during evaporation of a solution containing calcium sulfate CaSO
4 and potassium sulfate K
2SO
4 in a molar ratio of 1:50 [
19]; via interaction of hot solutions (80
oC, 100
oC) of calcium nitrate Ca(NO
3)
2 and potassium sulfate K
2SO
4 [
20]; via interaction of calcium sulfate CaSO
4 and potassium chloride KCl in water medium [
21]; or under mechanical activation in planetary mill from powder mixture of potassium sulfate K
2SO
4 and calcium sulfate dihydrate CaSO
4·2H
2O [
17,
22].
Syngenite K
2Ca(SO
4)
2·H
2O as a solid cement stone was synthesized by adding of water to the powder mixture consisting of calciolangbeinite K
2Ca
2(SO
4)
3 and potassium sulfate K
2SO
4 [
15] or to the powder mixture of calcium sulfate CaSO
4 and potassium sulfate K
2SO
4 [
23].
The aim of this investigation consisted in the development of robust method of synthesis of syngenite K2Ca(SO4)2·H2O powder not containing reaction by-products which need to be removed via washing of precipitate. Chemical interaction of powder of calcium carbonate CaCO3 and potassium hydrosulfate KHSO4 water solution will provide forming both target precipitate and unstable reaction by-product H2CO3 which can decompose during synthesis forming H2O and CO2. The release of gaseous CO2 from the reaction zone will be an expected sign of a chemical reaction.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Materials
Powders of CaCO3 (GOST 4530-76, Rushim, Moscow, Russia) and KHSO4 (GOST 4223-75, Rushim, Moscow, Russia) were used for syntheses of powders.
2.2. Synthesis of Powders
Quantities of reagents were calculated according to Reaction (1).
Molar ratio of starting salts KHSO
4/CaCO
3 in each synthesis was equal 2 and taken according to reaction (1) to produce syngenite K
2Ca(SO
4)
2·H
2O.
Table 1 contains labeling and synthesis conditions of powders under investigation. 400 ml of 0.5M, 1.0M, 2.0M KHSO
4 water solutions were prepared and used in the experiment. Calculated quantities of CaCO
3 power were added to each solution. Suspensions were kept on magnetic stirrer during 3 hours until the gas release stopped. Conditions of powders’ synthesis and labeling of samples under investigation are presented in
Table 1.
Precipitates were separate from the mother liquor using vacuum filtration, placed in the plastic trays and left to dry for a week. Then powders were collected, weighted, crushed in the agate mortar and passed through the sieve with the 200 μm cells. Transparent mother liquors were collected and products solved in were extracted from solutions via evaporation when keeping them at 40 oC for water evacuation and products crystallization. Substances extracted from mother liquors separated from synthesized powders SP0.5M SP1.0M and SP2.0M were labeled as Ex-SP0.5M, Ex-SP1.0M, Ex-SP2.0M respectively.
2.3. Methods of Analysis
The phase composition of the powders obtained after the synthesis and drying was determined by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analysis using Rigaku Miniflex 600 diffractometer (CuKα radiation, Kβ filter, and D/teX Ultra detector) in Bragg–Brentano geometry (Rigaku Corporation, Tokyo, Japan) with an angle interval 2Ѳ from 5° to 70° (step 2Ѳ − 0.02°). Phase analysis was performed using the ICDD PDF2 database [
24] and Match software (version
https://www.crystalimpact.com/, 15 August 2024).
Bulk densities of samples were calculated as mass of 1,0 ml of synthesized powders after drying, crashing in the agate mortar and passing through the sieve with 200 μm sells.
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of the synthesized powder were characterized by SEM on Tescan Vega II (Tescan, Brno, Czech Republic) at accelerating voltages from 1 to 20 kV in secondary electron imaging mode (SE2 detector). Gold layers (≤10 nm in thickness) on the surface of the powder samples were applied (Quorum Technologies spraying plant, Q150T ES, Great Britain, London, UK).
Thermal analysis (TA) including thermogravimetry (TG) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) was performed using an NETZSCH STA 449 F3 Jupiter thermal analyzer (NETZSCH, Selb, Germany) during heating in air (10 °C/min, 40–1000 °C), the specimen mass being at least 10 mg. The gas-phase composition was monitored by a Netzsch QMS 403 Quadro quadrupole mass spectrometer (NETZSCH, Selb, Germany) coupled with a NETZSCH STA 449 F3 Jupiter thermal analyzer (NETZSCH, Selb, Germany). The mass spectra were registered for the following m/Z values: 18 (H2O); 64 (SO2).
3. Results and Discussion
According to the XRD data of synthesized powders shown in
Figure 1, the phase composition of SP0.5M powder included CaSO
4·2H
2O (PDF card 33-313). The phase composition of SP1.0M and SP2.0M powders was represented preferably by syngenite K
2Ca(SO
4)
2·H
2O (PDF card 28-739) and CaSO
4·2H
2O in small extent. Reflexes of CaSO
4·2H
2O in XRD graph of SP2.0M powder hardly can be seen in the
Figure 1 but in case of greater magnification very small reflexes could be seen. No traces of starting salts presented in the synthesized powders.
Phase composition determined using Match software and mass of synthesized powders are summarized in
Table 2.
The calcium sulfate dihydrate CaSO
4·2H
2O present in the synthesized powder could be obtained according in accordance with the reaction (2).
Using Match software gypsum was determined in quantity of 7.1 and 1.3 mass % in powders SP1.0M and SP2.0M respectively. One can see that the syngenite K
2Ca(SO
4)
2·H
2O content in the synthesized powder depended on the conditions of the synthesis and increased with increasing of concentrations of the initial reagents (
Table 2).
Camera photos of products extracted via evaporation from the transparent mother liquors are shown in
Figure 2. There is no noticeable difference in the appearance of products collected from mother liquors except obviously bigger quantity of Ex-SP0.5M. All extracted products consisted of white transparent elongated crystals.
According XRD the phase composition of products extracted via evaporation from the mother liquors (
Figure 3) consisted of potassium sulfate (arcanite) K
2SO
4 (card PDF 5-613) and syngenite K
2Ca(SO
4)
2·H
2O.
The presence of K
2SO
4 in the extracted products was provided due to reaction (2), and K
2Ca(SO
4)
2·H
2O (K
sp (K
2Ca(SO
4)
2·H
2O) = 1.88 × 10
−4) formed due to presence of Ca
2+, K
+ and SO
42- in the mother liquors during water evaporation. The phase composition determined using Match software and mass the of extracted products are shown in
Table 3. The higher the concentration of water solutions of potassium hydrosulfate KHSO
4 the lower the mass of products extracted from mother liquors and lower the contents of potassium sulfate K
2SO
4 in the extracted products are.
SEM-images of synthesized powders are presented in
Figure 4.
Powder SP0.5M with phase composition presented by gypsum CaSO
4·2H
2O consisted of particles having elongated prismatic morphology, which was typical for this mineral, with 5-20 μm long and 2-4 μm wide. Powders SP1.0M and SP2.0M with phase composition presented preferably by syngenite K
2Ca(SO
4)
2·H
2O consisted of particles having plate morphology which is typical for this mineral [
15] with dimension 4-20 μm and 0.5-2 μm thick. It should be noted that syngenite K
2Ca(SO
4)
2·H
2O earlier was found to form elongated crystals [
25] or even can also form “felt-like structure consisting of long, rail-like crystals” with a length of 10–20 μm in the paste based on the СаSO
4·2H
2O and К
2SO
4 [
26].
Plate and elongated morphology of particles and their small dimensions can be taken as a reason of low balk density of synthesized powders which was 0.85, 0.80 and 0.86 g/cm
3 for powders SP0.5M, SP1.0M and SP2.0M respectively (
Figure 5). Taking into account calculated density of gypsum CaSO
4·2H
2O (2.310 g/cm³, # 96-901-7314, Match) and syngenite K
2Ca(SO
4)
2·H
2O (2.575 g/cm³, # 96-900-8129, Match) relative densities of powders SP0.5M, SP1.0M and SP2.0M were 37, 34 and 33 % respectively.
Thermal analysis data for the synthesized powders are shown at
Figure 6.
Total mass loss of powder SP0.5M at 1000
oC was 20.7% and this was in the good agreement with the possible mass loss of gypsum CaSO
4·2H
2O (20,9%) according to equation (2).
Total mass loss of powders SP1.0M and SP2.0M were 6.7% and 5.7% at 1000
oC respectively. No traces of SO
2 (m/Z=64) were registered in the released gas phase during heating. Mass spectra for H
2O (m/Z=18) confirmed that mass loss of all synthesized powders during heating were due to H
2O evacuation (
Figure 7). H
2O left sample SP0.5M in interval 90-200 with maximum at 144
oC. Mass loss of SP1.0M and SP2.0M went through two stage. First stage for powders SP1.0M were in the interval 106-155
oC with maximum at 134
oC and SP2.0M in the interval 99-153
oC with maximum 128
oC. This mass loss for powders SP1.0M and SP2.0M also could be due to decomposition of the smallest quantity of gypsum CaSO
4·2H
2O which were found by means of XRD (
Figure 1,
Table 2). Mass loss at the first stage of TA data give as opportunity to estimate quantity of gypsum CaSO
4·2H
2O as 7.9 and 1.9 % in powders SP1.0M and SP2.0M respectively. It worth to note that the estimation made taking into account TA data is close to the estimation of quantity of gypsum CaSO
4·2H
2O made by using Match software. The second stage of mass loss of SP1.0M and SP2.0M were in interval 230-310
oC with maximum 276
oC. This interval corresponds to the interval 250-300
oC determined previously [
27]. Temperature interval 230-280
oC was used earlier for investigation of syngenite K
2Ca(SO
4)
2·H
2O decomposition in the isothermal conditions [
28]. Taking into account XRD data reaction (3) could reflect the process of thermal decomposition of syngenite K
2Ca(SO
4)
2·H
2O in this interval.
Endothermal effect for SP05M at interval 100-230
oC with minimum at 147
oC which was due to thermal dehydration of gypsum CaSO
4·2H
2O (
Figure 8).
There are 5 endothermal effects at the DSC curves of powders SP1.0M and SP2.0M. Endothermal effect in the intervals 90-180
oC with minimum at 130
oC (SP1.0M) and 90-160
oC with minimum at 126
oC (SP2.0M) correspond to thermal decomposition of gypsum CaSO
4·2H
2O presenting in these powders (reaction (2)). Endothermal effect in the interval 240-310
oC with minimum at 280
oC for powders SP1.0M and SP2.0M was due to dehydration of sygenite K
2Ca(SO
4)
2·H
2O (reaction (3)). The following three endothermal effects for SP1.0M and SP2.0M powders are at 557, 877 and 950
oC. According to the binary system K
2SO
4-CaSO
4 the following phases potassium sulfate K
2SO
4, calcium sulfate CaSO
4 and calciolangbeinite K
2Ca
2(SO
4)
3 exist in this system before 500
oC [
29]. Reactions (4) and (5) can reflect formation of all these minerals [
30,
31].
There is transformation of β-K2SO4 to α-K2SO4 at 550 oC, formation of eutectic melt at 875 oC and transformation of K2Ca2(SO4)3 to K2Ca2(SO4)3 at 940 oC in the binary system K2SO4-CaSO4. Endothermal effects at the experimental curves for SP1.0M and SP2.0M powders are in the obvious agreement with the events possible according with existing information about binary system K2SO4-CaSO4.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, T.V.S.; methodology, T.V.S.; investigation, T.V.S., P.D.L., A.I.Z., X.L., T.B.S., O.V.B., D.R.K., M.M.A., Z.X. and M.R.A.; resources, D.R.K., T.B.S., O.V.B.; writing—original draft preparation, P.D.L., A.I.Z., T.V.S.; writing—review and editing, T.V.S.; visualization, T.V.S., P.D.L., A.I.Z., D.R.K., T.B.S., O.V.B., M.M.A. and M.R.A.; supervision, T.V.S.; project administration, T.V.S.; funding acquisition, M.R.A. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.