Studies on the effect of temperature on the sedimentation of insoluble metal carbonates

The effect of temperature on the sedimentation rate of some insoluble metal carbonates has been investigated in this work. The sedimentation constants show that a 20°C rise in temperature typically doubles the rate of sedimentation. Cadmium carbonates have higher sedimentation constants while nickel had the lowest sedimentation constants. The order of sedimentation does not seem to have any dependence on temperature. The minimum energy needed to activate the sedimentation process was higher for Zn^2+, 67.90kJmol-1 and lowest for Ni^2+, 25.5kJmol-1. The dependence of the metal carbonates on temperature follows the order Zn^2+ Cd^2+ Cu^2+ Co^2+ Ni^2+.