Investigation of scale inhibition mechanisms based on the effect of scale inhibitor on calcium carbonate crystal forms

Abstract

To probe the scale inhibition mechanisms, calcium carbonate scale occurring before and after the addition of scale inhibitors was collected. The results from scale SEM confirm that, without scale inhibitor, calcium carbonate scale shows rhombohedron and hexagon, which are the characteristic feathers of calcite. After addition of inhibitors, morphology of scale is changed, and the more efficient the scale inhibitor is, the more greatly the morphology is modified. To elucidate the scale constitute, they were further analyzed by FT-IR, XRD. Besides calcite, vaterite and aragonite occur in calcium carbonate scale after addition of inhibitors, and the higher scale inhibition efficiency is, the more vaterite presents in scale. It can be concluded that the alteration of morphology is ascribed to the change of crystal form. There are three stages in the crystallizing process including occurrence and disappearing of unstable phase, occurrence and disappearing of metastable phase, development of stable phase. Without scale inhibitors, metastable phases usually transform into stable phase, thus the main constitute of formed scale is calcite. When scale inhibitors are added, both formation and transformation of metastable phases are inhibited, which results in the occurrence of aragonite and vaterite. From the fact that more vaterite presents in scale with a more efficient scale inhibitor added, we can see that the function of scale inhibitor is realized mainly by controlling the crystallizing process at the second stage.