Determination of carbon fractionation factor between aqueous carbonate and CO2(g) in two-direction isotope equilibration

The experiments were conducted in the open CO2 system to find out the equilibrium fractionation between the carbonate ion and CO2(g). The existence of isotopic equilibrium was checked using the two-direction approach by passing the CO2−N2 gases with different δ13C compositions (− 1.5‰ and − 23‰) through the carbonate solution with δ13C = − 4.2‰. The ΔCO3T2−−CO2(g) equilibrium fractionation is given as 6.03 ± 0.17‰ at 25 °C. Discussion is provided about the significance of carbonate complexing in determination of ΔCO3T2−−CO2(g) and ΔHCO3T−−CO2(g) fractionations. Finally, an isotope numerical model of flow and kinetics of hydration and dehydroxylation is built to predict the isotopic behaviour of the system with time.