Experimental Evidence of Crystallization Pressure inside Porous Media

L. A. Rijniers, H. P. Huinink, L. Pel, and K. Kopinga
Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 075503 – Published 23 February 2005

Abstract

Crystallization pressure of salt in porous materials is one of the mechanisms that may induce serious damage, for example, weathering of buildings and monuments of cultural heritage. Since this pressure also causes the solubility of the salt inside a porous material to differ from the bulk solubility, it can be assessed experimentally by measuring the solubility inside the pores. We show that this is possible by NMR, and study Na2CO3 and Na2SO4 in a series of model porous materials. Using the solubility data the crystal-liquid surface energies are estimated as γ=0.09   N/m for Na2CO3·10H2O and γ=0.06   N/m for Na2SO4·10H2O. For pore sizes below about 30 nm, the resulting pressure exceeds the tensile strength of typical building materials (3 MPa). No pressure is induced by the metastable Na2SO4·7H2O, which suggests for this crystal a value of γ close to zero.

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  • Received 27 September 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.075503

©2005 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

L. A. Rijniers, H. P. Huinink, L. Pel, and K. Kopinga

  • Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands

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Issue

Vol. 94, Iss. 7 — 25 February 2005

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