FeCO3 Synthesis Pathways: The Influence of Temperature, Duration, and Pressure

Abstract

FeCO3 is present as scales in process equipment, corrosion products, geological systems, and carbon storage. It is therefore crucial to investigate the properties of FeCO3 to understand scaling in all these systems. However, FeCO3 is not commercially available, and when used in the lab it is either obtained through extraction of geological formations or synthesized in-house. Geologically formed FeCO3 contains multiple impurities, which will affect its overall properties, and the synthesized product is highly sensitive to either oxidation or the synthesis pathways. This work explores the parameter space of a synthesis route routinely and pathways for FeCO3. We characterized the structure of FeCO3 using X-ray powder diffraction and its thermal properties with thermogravimetric analysis and scanning electron microscopy. We show how synthesis parameters influence either the macroscopic or microscopic properties of the synthesized product. Our study serves as a guideline for future research regarding what parameters to choose when synthesizing FeCO3 and what product can be obtained. We herein present a novel fundamental understanding of FeCO3