Uncovering the Atomistic Mechanism for Calcite Step Growth.

Determining a complete atomic-level picture of how minerals grow from aqueous solution remains a challenge as macroscopic rates can be a convolution of many reactions. For the case of calcite (CaCO3 ) in water, computer simulations have been used to map the complex thermodynamic landscape leading to...

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Main Authors: De La Pierre, Marco, Raiteri, Paolo, Stack, A., Gale, Julian
Format: Journal Article
Published: Wiley VCH 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/52467
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author De La Pierre, Marco
Raiteri, Paolo
Stack, A.
Gale, Julian
author_facet De La Pierre, Marco
Raiteri, Paolo
Stack, A.
Gale, Julian
author_sort De La Pierre, Marco
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Determining a complete atomic-level picture of how minerals grow from aqueous solution remains a challenge as macroscopic rates can be a convolution of many reactions. For the case of calcite (CaCO3 ) in water, computer simulations have been used to map the complex thermodynamic landscape leading to growth of the two distinct steps, acute and obtuse, on the basal surface. The carbonate ion is found to preferentially adsorb at the upper edge of acute steps while Ca(2+) only adsorbs after CO3(2-) . In contrast to the conventional picture, ion pairs prefer to bind at the upper edge of the step with only one ion, at most, coordinated to the step and lower terrace. Migration of the first carbonate ion to a growth site is found to be rate-limiting for kink nucleation, with this process having a lower activation energy on the obtuse step.
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publishDate 2017
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-524672018-04-19T08:25:32Z Uncovering the Atomistic Mechanism for Calcite Step Growth. De La Pierre, Marco Raiteri, Paolo Stack, A. Gale, Julian Determining a complete atomic-level picture of how minerals grow from aqueous solution remains a challenge as macroscopic rates can be a convolution of many reactions. For the case of calcite (CaCO3 ) in water, computer simulations have been used to map the complex thermodynamic landscape leading to growth of the two distinct steps, acute and obtuse, on the basal surface. The carbonate ion is found to preferentially adsorb at the upper edge of acute steps while Ca(2+) only adsorbs after CO3(2-) . In contrast to the conventional picture, ion pairs prefer to bind at the upper edge of the step with only one ion, at most, coordinated to the step and lower terrace. Migration of the first carbonate ion to a growth site is found to be rate-limiting for kink nucleation, with this process having a lower activation energy on the obtuse step. 2017 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/52467 10.1002/anie.201701701 Wiley VCH fulltext
spellingShingle De La Pierre, Marco
Raiteri, Paolo
Stack, A.
Gale, Julian
Uncovering the Atomistic Mechanism for Calcite Step Growth.
title Uncovering the Atomistic Mechanism for Calcite Step Growth.
title_full Uncovering the Atomistic Mechanism for Calcite Step Growth.
title_fullStr Uncovering the Atomistic Mechanism for Calcite Step Growth.
title_full_unstemmed Uncovering the Atomistic Mechanism for Calcite Step Growth.
title_short Uncovering the Atomistic Mechanism for Calcite Step Growth.
title_sort uncovering the atomistic mechanism for calcite step growth.
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/52467