Dear scientific community,

I have a question regarding the carbonate precipitation and how you make it.

Perhaps the most common carbonate precipitation is:

Na2CO3 (aq) + CaCl2(aq) → CaCO3 (s) + 2 NaCl (aq)

Here, you could use 2 g of each and expect the precipitation to be about 1.8 g.

1) Is anyone using Mg instead of Ca, or any other atom? If so, how do you go about to do it (mass of reagents, pH, time, temperature etc.) ?

2) Do you know the benefits of using a certain atom over the other, apart from cost, hazard or toxicity.

I am asking question 2 because I am looking for a carbonate precipitation that best (co-)precipitates the alkaline earth metals (group 2).

Thank you very much for your time