Publication Date
2021
Document Type
Thesis
Committee Members
Steven Higgins, Ph.D. (Advisor); David Dolson, Ph.D. (Committee Member); Ioana Pavel, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Abstract
There have been limited studies on the analysis of the nucleation and precipitation behind calcium fluoride. Earlier studies support a nucleation mechanism in agreement to classical nucleation theory (CNT) in which a surface nucleation mechanism is required for calcium fluoride. This experiment devised using the ISE method to calcium fluoride to find evidence of a nucleation mechanism like that of calcium carbonate (prenucleation cluster pathway). The potential and pH were recorded versus time and the potential data was converted to nCa2+ data of free calcium ions. It was determined that there was evidence of a similar nucleation mechanism for calcium fluoride due to a similar nCa2+ curve being produced. It was also proven that ion pairing of the reaction cell was not a major factor to our experiments by calculations and analysis. The formation constants, Kip, for CaF+ were found to be 3800% higher than the literature value. This experiment indicates that a similar mechanism can occur for calcium fluoride, but further analysis is needed to confirm this.
Page Count
80
Department or Program
Department of Chemistry
Year Degree Awarded
2021
Copyright
Copyright 2021, all rights reserved. My ETD will be available under the "Fair Use" terms of copyright law.
