The Influence of Chelating Agents on the Kinetics of Calcite Dissolution

The kinetics of calcite dissolution in the presence of calcium chelating agents was investigated over the pH range of 3.3-12 using a rotating disk apparatus. The results show that the rate of dissolution is increased significantly by the presence of chelating agents such as CDTA, DTPA, and EDTA. The rate of dissolution is influenced by the kinetics of the chelation reactions and varies considerably with pH and type of chelating agent. A surface chelation mechanism was introduced to describe the dissolution. The mechanism involves the adsorption of the chelating agent onto the calcite surface and follows Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetics. The dissolution is different from conventional hydrogen ion attack in that the chelating agent attacks the calcium component of the lattice rather than the carbonate component. Therefore, the rate of dissolution is enhanced by the influence of hydrogen ion attack at low pH. In addition, the various ionic forms of the chelating agents react with the calcite surface at different rates depending on the number of hydrogen ions associated with the species. In general, the rate of dissolution increases with increasing protonation. The surface complexation mechanism was shown to describe the rate of calcite dissolution in the presence of chelating agents over the pH range of 4-12. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.