Kinetics and morphological characteristics of struvite (MgNH(4)PO(4).6H(2)O) under the influence of maleic acid

This work reports a stirred-batch lab crystallization to examine the influence of maleic acid (HO(2)CCHCHCO(2)H), and temperatures (30 and 40 °C) on crystallization kinetics and morphology of struvite. The crystallization was followed by measuring the pH change up to 70 min. The pH decreased drastically for the first 5 min of the run, then started to tail off. It was found that the crystallization rate constants range from 1.608 to 6.534 per hour, which agrees with the most published value. Higher maleic acid concentrations resulted in greater growth retardation; the highest retardation was 74.21%, which was achieved for 30 °C with 20.00 ppm maleic acid. SEM imaging of the obtained precipitates showed irregular prismatic morphology, and the associated EDX confirmed that the precipitates were struvite (MgNH(4)PO(4)⋅6H(2)O). As checked through XRD, the crystalline nature of the struvite was further confirmed, and that co-precipitation of struvite with struvite-K was observed. The co-precipitation was the result of K(+) adsorption onto the crystal surface. Temperatures had less influence on struvite crystallization. At 40(o)C and 20.00 ppm the rate constant was 1.332 per hour; whereas at 30(o)C and 0.00 ppm) the corresponding was 1.776 per hour, indicating the retardation of about 25%. Thus, the temperature effect is only 1/3 of the maleic acid effect. The current findings suggest that the presence of maleic acid can be used to elucidate the mechanism of crystallization as well as the crystalline phase transformation of struvite. In practical terms, maleic acid could be potential as a scale inhibitor.