Synthesis and Characterization of Micron-Sized Spherical Calcium Carbonate Regulated by Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose

Abstract

Spherical calcium carbonate particles were prepared with sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as an addition agent by using a double decomposition reaction. We studied the effects of the additional amount of CMC on the morphology and crystal forms of calcium carbonate. The morphology and size of the product were characterized by using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). We found that with the continuous increase of the additional amount of CMC, the number of prepared spherical calcium carbonate particles gradually increases. When the additional amount of CMC is 50% of the mass of calcium carbonate generated by the reaction, all calcium carbonate becomes micron-scale spherical calcium carbonate particles. The method can be used for the preparation of spherical calcium carbonate. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to test the crystal form of calcium carbonate prepared by adding different qualities of CMC. It has been found that both calcite type and vaterite type calcium carbonate exist, but with the increase of the additional amount of CMC, the number of fingerprint peaks and amplitude deviated from the baseline increased gradually. These results show that the proportion of amorphous calcium carbonate is significantly increased as the additional amount of CMC increases. The study provides a reference for exploring the preparation conditions of calcium carbonate microcapsules and the mechanism of crystal form transformation.

Keywords

Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose / Microcapsule / Spherical calcium carbonate / Morphology / Crystal form

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge technical support from the Analytical Testing Center of Lanzhou Jiaotong University.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: N.W.; Formal analysis: J.Z., C.L.; Investigation: C.L., L.J.; Methodology: Y.W., J.Z.; Resources: Y.W.; Writing—original draft: N.W., Y.W.; Writing—review & editing: N.W., Y.W. All authors have read and approved the final version to be published.

Ethics Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

All relevant data are within the paper.

Funding

This research was funded by the Gansu Province Key Research and Development Program (Grant No. 23YFGA0044).

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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