The solubility of Ca(OH)2 in extremely concentrated NaOH solutions at 25°C

Abstract

Abstract The solubility of Ca(OH)2 in aqueous NaOH solutions up to 12.50 M at 25°C has been determined. The solubility data obtained for NaOH concentrations lower than 3 M was compared with those published in the literature. The solubility of Ca(OH)2 steadily decreases with the increasing NaOH concentration. The solubility data obtained at a constant ionic strength (I = 1 M Na(Cl,OH)) enabled the determination of the conditional solubility product of Ca(OH)2(s) (lgLCa(OH)2 = − 4.10 ± 0.02). Formation of the hydroxo complex CaOH+(aq) was invoked to describe the variation of [Ca2+]T with [OH−]T. Its conditional stability constant was found to be lgKCaOH+ = 0.97 ± 0.02. The experimental protocol employed was proven to be suitable for accurate solubility determinations in rapidly equilibrating systems comprising of highly concentrated, alkaline solutions and containing analytes in the ppm range.