Elucidating the Dehydration Pathways of K2CO3·1.5H2O

Joey Aarts; Natalia Mazur; Hartmut R Fischer; Olaf C G Adan; Henk P Huinink

doi:10.1021/acs.cgd.3c01484

Elucidating the Dehydration Pathways of K₂CO₃·1.5H₂O

Cryst Growth Des. 2024 Mar 4;24(6):2493-2504. doi: 10.1021/acs.cgd.3c01484. eCollection 2024 Mar 20.

Authors

Joey Aarts^{1

2}, Natalia Mazur^{1

3}, Hartmut R Fischer³, Olaf C G Adan^{2

3}, Henk P Huinink^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Eindhoven Institute of Renewable Energy Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, PO Box 513, Eindhoven 5600 MB, The Netherlands.
² Transport in Permeable Media group, Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, PO Box 513, Eindhoven 5600 MB, The Netherlands.
³ TNO Materials Solution, PO Box 6235, High Tech Campus 25, Eindhoven 5600 HE, The Netherlands.

Abstract

Potassium carbonate sesquihydrate has previously been identified as a promising material for thermochemical energy storage. The hydration and cyclic behavior have been extensively studied in the literature, but detailed investigation into the different processes occurring during dehydration is lacking. In this work, a systematic investigation into the different dehydration steps is conducted. It is found that at higher temperatures, dehydration of pristine material occurs as a single process since water removal from the pristine crystals is difficult. After a single cycle, due to morphological changes, dehydration now occurs as two processes, starting at lower temperatures. The morphological changes open new pathways for water removal at the newly generated edges, corners, and steps of the crystal surface. The observations from this work may contribute to material design as they elucidate the relation between material structure and behavior.