Elucidation of reaction process between solid tricalcium silicate and a lanthanum salt solution in connection with the precipitation pH. Extension to other elements

Abstract Dissolution of tricalcium silicate is strongly accelerated in a La salt solution and releases the amounts of OH, Ca and silicate ions just required to precipitate all of lanthanum at pH 8. It remained to be proved that (1) La silicate hydrate could form at pH 8, and (2) Ca silicate hydrate could not precipitate simultaneously. The plot of silicate hydrate and hydroxide precipitation pH of La, Ca and other elements (Th, Zr) against the dropped volume of K2SiO3 and KOH solution and some physico-chemical characterization methods bring affirmative answers to these questions and allow the immobilization process of La and other elements in the presence of tricalcium silicate to be better…