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Updated: Feb 10, 2026

Laboratory-determined Phosphorus Flux from Lake Sediments as a Measure of Internal Phosphorus Loading
Published on: March 6, 2014
Phosphorus solubility in basaltic glass: Limitations for phosphorus immobilization in glass and glass-ceramics
M Tarrago1, M Garcia-Valles2, S Martínez2
1Dept. Mineralogia, Petrologia i Geologia Aplicada, Facultat de Ciències de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona, c/Martí i Franquès, s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Spain; CNRS-Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, USPC, 1 rue Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France.
Abstract:
The composition of sewage sludge from urban wastewater treatment plants is simulated using P-doped basalts. Electron microscopy analyses show that the solubility of P in the basaltic melt is limited by the formation of a liquid-liquid immiscibility in the form of an aluminosilicate phase and a Ca-Mg-Fe-rich phosphate phase. The rheological behavior of these compositions is influenced by both phase separation and nanocrystallization. Upon a thermal treatment, the glasses will crystallize into a mixture of inosilicates and spinel-like phases at low P contents and into Ca-Mg-Fe phosphate at high P contents. Hardness measurements yield values between 5.41 and 7.66 GPa, inside the range of commercial glasses and glass-ceramics. Leaching affects mainly unstable Mg2+-PO43- complexes.
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