PRECIPITATED CALCIUM CARBONATE PRODUCTION, SYNTHESIS AND PROPERTIES

Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) is the most widely used filler material in paper, paint, plastic, food, ceramic, cosmetic, medicine and other industries. In the present paper, precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) has been produced from waste marble powder (WMP) by the Calcination-Dissolution-Precipitation (CDP) method. Calcination, dissolution and precipitation experiments were carried out under various conditions including : calcination temperature (800, 850, 900, 950 and 1000 degrees C), dissolution time (2.5, 5.0, 7.5 and 10.0 min) and precipitation time (2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10.0, 12.5 and 15.0 min). Then, XRF, XRD, SEM, particle size, whiteness, brightness and yellowness analyses were performed for the characterization of the produced PCC materials. The analyses showed that the precipitate was mainly micrometer-sized (d(50) = 1.682 mu m) rhombohedral calcium carbonate crystals with 54.5% CaO. The whiteness, brightness and yellowness tests of the precipitates, conducted by Datacolor Elrepho 450x spectrometer, were determined to be 91.28, 98.2 and 1.99%, respectively. It was finally concluded that the produced PCC material reasonably meets Turkish Standards (TS 11653/1995) and can be used in paper industry.