I see that in the production of cal. silicate, normally the method used is to autoclave sand and lime.
If we can easily mix sod. silicate and milk of lime to get cal. silicate; then why it is not used in the production?
Is there any differences in the phases formed in both ways of synthesis?
Calcsilicates are composed of Ca, Fe, Al, Mn and silica - see e.g. garnet, but do not bear Na. Why shall I try and force a mineral/ chemical compound to accommodate an element into its lattice which does crystallographically not fit into it ?
HGD
Dear Sumesh,
Harald G. Dill has already explained very well but I would like to understand if you are looking for wollastonite like calcium silicate. Because even in this case system that you propose doesn’t work. There isn’t Sodium inside the formula . Wollastonite like minerals need heating and pressure to be stabilized. Sodium silicate is useless , specially if you don’t specify the molar ratio you would use and can’t produce new stable minerals using lime as source.
All the best
Alex Reggiani
Yes, it is possible, and it has been studied a number of times (since 1961, Article Reaction between silica and calcium hydroxide solutions. I. ...
) . A more common method of producing pure calcium silicate hydrate in the lab is to use sodium silicate and calcium nitrate, so as to yield soluble sodium nitrate and reduce contamination.I would guess that the main reason for not using this method commercially is that it is more expensive.
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