Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 13 August 1993:
Vol. 261. no. 5123, pp. 888 - 891
DOI: 10.1126/science.261.5123.888
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Multiple Ion Association in Supercritical Aqueous Solutions of Single Electrolytes

Eric H. Oelkers 1 and Harold C. Helgeson 2

1 Laboratoire de Géochimie, Université Paul Sabatier, 38 rue des Trente-six Ponts, 31400 Toulouse, France
2 Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-4767

Solute speciation in supercritical aqueous alkali metal halide solutions plays an important role in various industrial and natural processes, for example, corrosion of metals, solvent extraction, crystal growth, metamorphism, and the formation of hydrothermal ore deposits. To better characterize such speciation, degrees of formation of polyatomic clusters of sodium and chlorine ions have been computed with the aid of dissociation constants generated from Monte Carlo calculations which are consistent with both supercritical conductance measurements and electrostatic theory. The calculations indicate that the solute in alkali-halide solutions is successively dominated by increasingly complex polyatomic clusters as the solute molality increases at pressures and temperatures where the dielectric constant of water is 15.

Submitted on March 12, 1993
Accepted on June 16, 1993


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Fluid Phase Separation Processes in Submarine Hydrothermal Systems.
D. I. Foustoukos and W. E. Seyfried Jr. (2007)
Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 65, 213-239
   Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)