FeCO3 Synthesis Pathways: The Influence of Temperature, Duration, and Pressure

FeCO₃ is present as scales in process equipment, corrosion products, geological systems, and carbon storage. It is therefore crucial to investigate the properties of FeCO₃ to understand scaling in all these systems. However, FeCO₃ is not commercially available, and when used in the lab it is either obtained through extraction of geological formations or synthesized in-house. Geologically formed FeCO₃ contains multiple impurities, which will affect its overall properties, and the synthesized product is highly sensitive to either oxidation or the synthesis pathways. This work explores the parameter space of a synthesis route routinely and pathways for FeCO₃. We characterized the structure of FeCO₃ using X-ray powder diffraction and its thermal properties with thermogravimetric analysis and scanning electron microscopy. We show how synthesis parameters influence either the macroscopic or microscopic properties of the synthesized product. Our study serves as a guideline for future research regarding what parameters to choose when synthesizing FeCO₃ and what product can be obtained. We herein present a novel fundamental understanding of FeCO₃.