Calcium carbonate deposition

What is it about?

This paper presents numerical simulation for interpretatio of chronoamperometric experimental curves of nucleation-growth process of calcium carbonate on rotating disk carbon steel electrode. The simulation based on finite element resolution was carried out to solve the convective–diffusion equation in order to calculate dioxygen gradient concentration at the electrode which allows the limiting current diffusion determination at various rotation speeds in the presence and absence ofcalcium carbonate. Methodology used in this paper opens a new way for chronoamperometric curve interpretation through analytical expression determination oflateral and vertical crystal growth rate on carbon steel, kL and kV, respectively

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Why is it important?

In this paper, it was shown that the equation governing convective diffusion in complex electrochemical systems can be solved by finite element method. The data analysis of the chronoamperometric curves were used for investigating nucleation and growth kinetics ofCaCO3 on electrode. CA has permitted obtention ofinformation on the screening effect of the insulating scale deposit on electrode surface and in particular, it has allowed discrimination between 2-D and 3-D blocking by modeling the mass transfer phenomena at mineral water solution/carbon steel interface. The model elaborated in this work predicts within a good accuracy the relative contributions of 3-D growth to the nucleation-growth process of calcium carbonate at disk electrode. It was found that the effect ofvertical growth ofthe crystals is negligible at the beginning of the scaling phenomenon.