Early Stages of Mineral Formation in Water

From Ion Pairs to Crystals

authored by

Mariette Wolthers, Denis Gebauer, Raffaella Demichelis

Abstract

Minerals can precipitate from aqueous solutions via a fascinating variety of pathways. Classically, these pathways were thought to be initiated by a single-step nucleation mechanism. Over the past two decades, several investigations revealed that minerals can form through multi-step processes, from dissolved single ions to the final stable crystal. Depending on the mineral system under investigation and its environment, alternative mechanisms are possible, including ion-by-ion aggregation and agglomeration of clusters of ions. Intermediate species can be intriguingly variable: from ion pairs and ion clusters, to dense liquids, amorphous phases, meso- and (charged) nanocrystals. Here we provide a summarized overview of our current knowledge about processes taking place during the prenucleation stage.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Inorganic Chemistry

External Organisation(s)

Utrecht University
Curtin University

Type

Article

Journal

ELEMENTS

Volume

21

Pages

18-24

No. of pages

7

ISSN

1811-5209

Publication date

02.2025

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geochemistry and Petrology, Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.2138/gselements.21.1.18 (Access: Closed)