Crystallization of jarosite in the presence of amino acids

Abstract

Jarosite was formed in the presence of five amino acids at two pHs, namely 1.75 and 2.9, to determine what impact amino acids have on its formation. It was found that at the lower pH glycine was the most potent in terms of morphological and yield impacts. XRD analysis showed that incorporation of the amino acid occurs at this low pH for glycine and proline. Dynamic light scattering studies showed that glycine impacts significantly on the jarosite nucleation rate while proline and alanine do not. At the higher pH all of the amino acids had much less impact on morphology or yield. At pH 3 the solids were found to be a 3-phase system consisting of goethite, schwertmannite and jarosite. In this case, alanine appeared to stabilise the presence of schwertmannite more than the other amino acids.