INCORPORATING THE CRYSTAL INTO WATER-ROCK KINETICS

A combination of statistical mechanics, elementary reactions and crystal structure allows a proper development of the kinetic behavior and the net overall laws that can be inferred to govern water-rock interactions. Concepts such as the reactions of assumed surface complexes introduce elementary reactions that can be only building blocks of any kinetic law treatment but cannot predict the overall behavior or the overall kinetic law (just as the assumptions of spins does not lead to a description of ferromagnetism). By combining all the many-body elements of the kinetics of complex processes such as dissolution, one can combine simple elementary reactions in a manner quite familiar to the well-developed field of crystal growth.

The new results will bring together inhibition, catalysis, activation energy and the dependence of the rate on saturation state into a unified and kinetically correct theory. For example, the kinetic justification of a so-called "transition state" formulation of the overall rate can be proven to be valid only in certain cases. The interplay of H⁺ ions or hydration-dehydration reactions can be incorporated beyond postulating the existence of precursor complexes by including bond-breaking and bond-forming processes within the overall crystal reaction. The distinction between saturation state, the creation of leached layers, non-stoichiometric dissolution and the precipitation of new phases can all be handled in one unified scheme. These new powerful kinetic approaches will hopefully initiate a much fuller appreciation of the kinetic behavior of mineral dissolution and mineral surface dynamics in water-rock interactions.