Facile synthesis of ultrafine and high purity spherical strontium carbonate via gas-liquid reaction

Abstract In this work, a simple gas-liquid precipitation reaction was developed to fabricate spherical strontium carbonate (SrCO3) particles using strontium hydroxide (Sr(OH)2), carbon dioxide (CO2) and ethylene diaminetetraacetic acid strontium salt (EDTA-Sr) as raw materials. The effects of the concentration of EDTA-Sr and Sr(OH)2, airflow rate of CO2 and reaction temperature on the morphology of SrCO3 were investigated. The results showed that spherical SrCO3 particles can be formed when the concentration of EDTA-Sr reached 0.02 M as well as that of Sr(OH)2 was less than 0.1 M. The airflow rate of CO2 gas had little effect on the spherical morphology, and SrCO3 microsphere with good dispersion could be obtained when the reaction temperature reached 50 °C. Under the optimal conditions ([EDTA-Sr] = 0.02 M, [Sr(OH)2] = 0.1 M, 50 °C, [CO2] = 1 l min−1), high purity spherical SrCO3 particles with diameter of 200–800 nm can be easily obtained. Finally, the growth mechanism of spherical SrCO3 has been preliminarily presented, which indicated that EDTA-Sr is an excellent structure-directing agent for forming pherical SrCO3 particles. Our work offers an effective method for large-scale production of high purity spherical SrCO3.