A practical guide for determining the solubility of metal hydroxides and oxides in water

✍ Scribed by Dyer, James A. ;Scrivner, Noel C. ;Dentel, Steven K.

• Publisher: American Institute of Chemical Engineers
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 862 KB
• Volume: 17
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0278-4491
• DOI: 10.1002/ep.670170112

✦ Synopsis

In response to increasing metal toxicity concerns, new and more stringent regulations are driving industry to better understand the fate of metals in the environment. As a result, practicing engineers need a set of tools for quickly understanding the aqueous chemistry of the system at hand. Thispaperpresents a practical guide for estimating the solubility of metal hydroxidedoxides in aqueous systems. Equilibrium chemistry software from OLI Systems, Inc. (Morris Plains, I $ ! ) was used to predict the solubility of metal hydroxides/oxides in water as a function ofpH. The product is an overall metal solubility diagram containing the solubility curves for 12 metal hydroxides/oxides. The curves are based on a commercially available thermodynamic database and were validated against literature solubility data. In most cases, the curves depict the solubility of the less stable crystalline or amorphous form of the metal hydroxide or oxide. This will be typical of industrial situations where aging of the solidphase is ofen minimal. The solubility curves are best viewed as 'kolubility bands" that cun extend as much as an order of magnitude above and below the predicted lines. Two case studies illustrate the usefulness ofthe overall metal solubility diagram topracticing engineers.