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Thermal Crystallization Kinetics of an Opal-like Biogenic Silica

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Abstract

A gray-colored sediment from Erzurum/Turkey zone was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, chemical analysis, and thermal analysis techniques. The raw sample contains mainly an amorphous biogenic opal-A as well as opal-CT, smectite, illite, and quartz as impurities. The XRD-pattern of the heated samples at different temperatures ranging between 1050 and 1175oC for durations from zero to 4 h was recorded. Consecutive increases in the intensity of the characteristic XRD-reflection at 2θ = 22o showed that the biogenic silica changed over paracrystalline opal-CT to crystalline α-cristobalite having the reflection with the maximum intensity (Im). Its insolubility in orthophosphoric acid digestion proved this formation. The temperature and heating time dependent intensity (I) were used as kinetic variables and the ratio of \( I/{I}_m=\alpha \)was defined as crystalline fraction. Using the differential rate law, \(d\alpha /dt=k {(1-\alpha )}^{n}\) and Arrhenius equation \(\text{ln}k=-{E}^{\#}/RT+ln A\), the order and activation energy for the crystallization were calculated as \(n=1\), and \({E}^{\#}=202 \text{k}\text{J}{ \text{m}\text{o}\text{l}}^{-1},\) respectively.

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Acknowledgements

Authors would like acknowledge the funding from Ankara University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit (19L0430007) for conducting this research.

Funding

This work received financial support from Ankara University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit (19L0430007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey

    Selin Dağlar

  2. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Ankara University, 06100, Ankara, Turkey

    Naime Didem Kahya, Muserref Onal & Yuksel Sarikaya

  3. Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, DS, 57701-3995, USA

    Gokce Ustunisik

  4. Department of Earth and Planetary Science, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, 10024-5192, USA

    Gokce Ustunisik

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  1. Selin Dağlar
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  2. Naime Didem Kahya
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  3. Gokce Ustunisik
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  4. Muserref Onal
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  5. Yuksel Sarikaya
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Contributions

The signed authors have all participated in the different parts of this paper. S. Daglar: Running Experiments, Investigation. N. D. Kahya: Characterization and formal analysis. G. Ustunisik: Visualization, Provide ideas, Writing, Revisions and Editing. M. Onal: Supervision, Analysis, Visualization, Writing, Conceptualization, Funding acquisition. Y. Sarikaya: Co-supervision, Methodology, Writing - original draft.

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Correspondence to Muserref Onal.

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Dağlar, S., Kahya, N.D., Ustunisik, G. et al. Thermal Crystallization Kinetics of an Opal-like Biogenic Silica. Silicon 14, 7211–7217 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-021-01498-2

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