Physical precipitation

Cleaning-up processes of tannery effluents usually include (i) a primary or chemical-physical treatment (coarse screen, equalization and chemical-physical precipitation with sedimentation and sludge separation) (ii) a secondary or biological treatment with partial or total recycle of sludge and their separation and (iii) a tertiary treatment (filtration, stripping, redox processes) (Cassano et al., 2001). 

Physical precipitation is used here as a term to describe processes in which a dissolved solute comes out of solution as a solid as a result of a physical change in the solution. The major changes that can cause physical precipitation are cooling the solution, evaporation of solvent, or alteration of solvent composition. The most common type of physical precipitation by alteration of solvent composition occurs when a water-miscible organic solvent is added to an aqueous (water) solution of a salt, so that the solubility of the salt is lowered below its concentration in the solution. 

Phase separation Filtration Phase transition Distillation Evaporation Physical precipitation... 

The complexity of petroleum products raises the question of sample validity is the sample representative of the total flow The problem becomes that much more difficult when dealing with samples of heavy materials or samples coming from separations. The diverse chemical families in a petroleum cut can have very different physical characteristics and the homogeneous nature of the cut is often due to the delicate equilibrium between its components. The equilibrium can be upset by extraction or by addition of certain materials as in the case of the precipitation of asphaltenes by light paraffins. 

The physical chemist is very interested in kinetics—in the mechanisms of chemical reactions, the rates of adsorption, dissolution or evaporation, and generally, in time as a variable. As may be imagined, there is a wide spectrum of rate phenomena and in the sophistication achieved in dealing wifli them. In some cases changes in area or in amounts of phases are involved, as in rates of evaporation, condensation, dissolution, precipitation, flocculation, and adsorption and desorption. In other cases surface composition is changing as with reaction in monolayers. The field of catalysis is focused largely on the study of surface reaction mechanisms. Thus, throughout this book, the kinetic aspects of interfacial phenomena are discussed in concert with the associated thermodynamic properties. 

Precipitate particles grow in size because of the electrostatic attraction between charged ions on the surface of the precipitate and oppositely charged ions in solution. Ions common to the precipitate are chemically adsorbed, extending the crystal lattice. Other ions may be physically adsorbed and, unless displaced, are incorporated into the crystal lattice as a coprecipitated impurity. Physically adsorbed ions are less strongly attracted to the surface and can be displaced by chemically adsorbed ions. 

Occlusions, which are a second type of coprecipitated impurity, occur when physically adsorbed interfering ions become trapped within the growing precipitate. Occlusions form in two ways. The most common mechanism occurs when physically adsorbed ions are surrounded by additional precipitate before they can be desorbed or displaced (see Figure 8.4a). In this case the precipitate s mass is always greater than expected. Occlusions also form when rapid precipitation traps a pocket of solution within the growing precipitate (Figure 8.4b). Since the trapped solution contains dissolved solids, the precipitate s mass normally increases. The mass of the precipitate may be less than expected, however, if the occluded material consists primarily of the analyte in a lower-molecular-weight form from that of the precipitate. 

Example of copredpitation (a) schematic of a chemically adsorbed inclusion or a physically adsorbed occlusion in a crystal lattice, where C and A represent the cation-anion pair comprising the analyte and the precipitant, and 0 is the impurity (b) schematic of an occlusion by entrapment of supernatant solution (c) surface adsorption of excess C. 

Gravimetric methods based on precipitation or volatilization reactions require that the analyte, or some other species in the sample, participate in a chemical reaction producing a change in physical state. For example, in direct precipitation gravimetry, a soluble analyte is converted to an insoluble form that precipitates from solution. In some situations, however, the analyte is already present in a form that may be readily separated from its liquid, gas, or solid matrix. When such a separation is possible, the analyte s mass can be directly determined with an appropriate balance. In this section the application of particulate gravimetry is briefly considered. 

There are numerous variations of the wet process, but all involve an initial step in which the ore is solubilized in sulfuric acid, or, in a few special instances, in some other acid. Because of this requirement for sulfuric acid, it is obvious that sulfur is a raw material of considerable importance to the fertilizer industry. The acid—rock reaction results in formation of phosphoric acid and the precipitation of calcium sulfate. The second principal step in the wet processes is filtration to separate the phosphoric acid from the precipitated calcium sulfate. Wet-process phosphoric acid (WPA) is much less pure than electric furnace acid, but for most fertilizer production the impurities, such as iron, aluminum, and magnesium, are not objectionable and actually contribute to improved physical condition of the finished fertilizer (35). Impurities also furnish some micronutrient fertilizer elements. 

Anhydrous aluminum triduotide, A1F., is a white crystalline soHd. Physical properties are Hsted ia Table 2. Aluminum duotide is spatingly soluble ia water (0.4%) and iasoluble ia dilute mineral acids as well as organic acids at ambient temperatures, but when heated with concentrated sulfuric acid, HF is hberated, and with strong alkah solutions, aluminates are formed. A1F. is slowly attacked by fused alkahes with the formation of soluble metal duotides and aluminate. A series of double salts with the duotides of many metals and with ammonium ion can be made by precipitation or by soHd-state reactions. 

Aluminum hydroxide gel may be prepared by a number of methods. The products vary widely in viscosity, particle size, and rate of solution. Such factors as degree of supersaturation, pH during precipitation, temperature, and nature and concentration of by-products present affect the physical properties of the gel. 

An ink is considered dry when a print does not stick or transfer to another surface pressed into contact with it. Drying is accompHshed by one or more of the following physical or chemical mechanisms absorption, evaporation, precipitation, oxidation, polymerization, cold setting, gelation, and radiation curing. 

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