It has been demonstrated that addition of small amounts of divalent metal ions (4.0×10
-4-2.0×10
-3 M) to a reaction system (0-40°C) of a calcium hydroxide suspension (0.4 M) and sulfur dioxide (50 vol %) lead to a formation of the spherulites of calcium sulfite hemihydrate (particle diameter : 2-18 μm). The concentration of metal ions to make spherulite formation ratio of hemihydrate maximum were different each other. When the reactions were carried out at 5°C, the bulk of the products is formed as the spherulites of calcium sulfite hemihydrate by adding each copper (II) ion, zinc (II) ion and nickel (II) ion in the concentrations of 4.0×10
-4 M, 1.0×10
-3 M and 2.0×10
-3 M, respectively. When the reactions were carried out at 5°C, the size of spherulites increased from 5.94 μm to 7.78 μm with increasing the concentration of copper (II) ion in the range of molar concentration from 1.0×10
-4 M to 5.0×10
-3 M. When the reactions were carried out adding copper (II) ion of 4.0×10
-4 M, the reaction temperature had no influence on the spherulite formation ratio in the range of 0-30°C, but in the higher temperature range, increasing temperature tended to decrease the spherulite formation ratio. At 50°C, the bulk of the product is formed as the formless masses of calcium sulfite hemihydrate. In the reaction system containing 4.0×10
-4 M copper sulfate, the size of spherulites increased from 7.07 μm to 11.5 μm with increasing the temperature in the range of 5-30°C. It was revealed that the spherulite of hemihydrate had the internal structure consist of a large number of platy and columnar crystals which arranged radially and densely from the center by scanning electron microscopic observation of its artificial broken cross section. Further, the adsorption phenomenon of metal ions and (or) metal compounds to the spherulite was also considered on the basis of the XMA analyses.
View full abstract