Poonoosamy Jenna, Obaied Abdulmonem, Deissmann Guido, Prasianakis Nikolaos I, Kindelmann Moritz, Wollenhaupt Bastian, Bosbach Dirk, Curti Enzo
Institute of Energy and Climate Research (IEK-6): Nuclear Waste Management, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425, Jülich, Germany.
Laboratory for Waste Management, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232, Villigen PSI, Switzerland.
Commun Chem. 2023 Nov 16;6(1):250. doi: 10.1038/s42004-023-01049-3.
The understanding and prediction of mineral precipitation processes in porous media are relevant for various energy-related subsurface applications. While it is well known that thermodynamic effects can inhibit crystallization in pores with sizes <0.1 µm, the retarded observation of mineral precipitation as function of pore size is less explored. Using barite as an example and based on a series of microfluidic experiments with well-defined pore sizes and shapes, we show that retardation of observation of barite crystallite can already start in pores of 1 µm size, with the probability of nucleation scaling with the pore volume. In general, it can be expected that mineralization occurs preferentially in larger pores in rock matrices, but other parameters such as the exchange of the fluids with respect to reaction time, as well as shape, roughness, and surface functional properties of the pores may affect the crystallization process which can reverse this trend.
对多孔介质中矿物沉淀过程的理解和预测与各种能源相关的地下应用相关。虽然众所周知，热力学效应可抑制孔径小于0.1微米的孔隙中的结晶，但作为孔径函数的矿物沉淀延迟观测较少受到探索。以重晶石为例，基于一系列具有明确孔径和形状的微流体实验，我们表明，重晶石微晶观测延迟在1微米大小的孔隙中就已经开始，成核概率与孔隙体积成比例。一般来说，可以预期矿化优先发生在岩石基质中的较大孔隙中，但其他参数，如流体相对于反应时间的交换，以及孔隙的形状、粗糙度和表面功能特性，可能会影响结晶过程，从而扭转这一趋势。
