Abstract
Woolastonite from Susan occurs as intercalations in limestone beds of Lower Paleozoic Joseon Supergroup. It is a thermal metamorphic product of impure limestone. Electron microprobe analysis shows that it is considerably pure wollastonite. It has triclinic cell with a=7.932$\AA$, b=7.328$\AA$, c=7.069$\AA$, $\alpha$=89.995$^{\circ}$, $\beta$=$95.255^{\circ}$, and $ \Upsilon=103.367^{\circ}$.Dissolution behaviors of wollastonite have been studied conducting three different dissolution experiments; two different reactions with HC1 (one batch and one re-initialization experiment) and one traction with distilled water. In the batch type powder wollastonite-HCl reaction, pH of solution rapidly increases in the early stage and then its rate of increase slows down to reach plateau resulting in parabolic relationship with time. It is represented by the early rapid rise and fall in pH giving a sharp pH-edge and succeeding slow rise in the re-initialization experiment. The early rapid rise in pH is due to the rapid sorption of H- in solution to oxygens on the reactive surface of wollastonite and the fall in pH means that all reactive surface sites are occupied by H- ions and no more H- adsorption occurs. The slow rise in pH following the pH- edge is due to the dissolution of wollastonite as evidenced by the correlation of pH variation and cation concentration. Dissolution of powder wollastonite in HCl shows linear trend with time. Si is dissolved predominantly over Ca at a constant rate. Ca is dissolved predominantly in the very early stage. Dissolution rate of coarse-grained wollastonite fragments in distilled water is parabolic with times howing a rapid reaction in the early stage and a slow reaction in the advanced stage. The Ca/Si ratio in solution is high in the case of coarse-grained wollastonite fragment as compared with powder wollastonite. The coarse-grained wollastonite fragment-water (acid) reaction resulted in the solution with an elevated constant pH value (alkaline) giving an important significance on the environmental view point.