Stable carbon isotope fractionation during the transformation of amorphous CaCO3 at low water–solid ratios: impact of humidity and temperature
Open accessAbstract
The isotopic composition of carbonates has been widely used as a proxy for reconstructing Earth’s past environmental conditions, which requires the preservation of the isotope composition of the primary precipitate or knowledge about its transformation pathway. In this context, the formation of crystalline carbonates via amorphous precursors has been identified as a common formation process for natural carbonates, where the impact to the isotopic composition of the final CaCO 3 products is insufficiently known to date. This study focusses on the stable carbon isotope fractionation during the transformation of amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) into crystalline carbonate in the presence/absence of atmospheric CO 2 induced by (i) humidity (from 33 to 95 % RH) at a temperature of 5 and 20 °C and (ii) solid-state transformation of ACC to calcite induced by heating up to 500 °C. During the crystallization of ACC at very low water ratios, induced by humidity, and in the presence of CO 2 , δ 13 C values of the solids increased with reaction time, where the crystalline carbonate-ACC enrichment factors ( 13 ε cc−ACC ) range between 2.0 and 8.4 ‰ at the final stage. This 13 ε cc−ACC evolution reflects the incorporation of ambient CO 2 (g) alongside carbonate ions released during ACC dissolution. In contrast, without CO 2 (g) the crystalline CaCO 3 almost matches the isotope composition of the ACC ( 13 ε c−ACC = −0.4 ± 0.3 ‰), thus indicating non-significant CO 2 degassing and/or subsequ…
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Relative humidity strongly influences carbon isotope fractionation during precipitation of calcite from atmospheric CO2.
“It was demonstrated convincingly that relative humidity strongly influences carbon isotope fractionation during the precipitation of calcite from atmospheric CO₂ [42].”
From Isotope chemistry to trace carbon mineralization in construction materials (2026) · cites this paper as [42]
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Isotope chemistry to trace carbon mineralization in construction materials
Jansen, D., Matschei, T., Van Geldern, R., Barth, J., & Snellings, R. (2026) · RILEM Technical Letters · doi:10.21809/rilemtechlett.2026.232
- Authors
- Asta, M. P., Bonilla-Correa, S., Pace, A., Dietzel, M., García-Alix, A., Vennemann, T., Meibom, A., & Adams, A.
- Affiliations
- Universidad de Granada (ES)
- Graz University of Technology (AT)
- University of Lausanne (CH)
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2025-11
- Volume
- 408
- Pages
- 56-70
- ISSN
- 0016-7037 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4414481602
- Cited by
- 0
- References
- 10
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Institutional Repository of the University of Granada (University of Granada) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- H2020 European Research Council (788752)
- Université de Lausanne (PID2021-125619OB-C21, RNM 179)
- Government of Andalusia (EMERGIA20_38594)
- European Regional Development Fund
- EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (101153099)
- Agencia Estatal de Investigación
- European Research Council
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Biomaterials › Calcium Carbonate Crystallization and Inhibition
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Keywords
- stable carbon isotope fractionation, amorphous calcium carbonate, calcite crystallization, carbonate precipitation, humidity effects, water-to-solid ratio, atmospheric CO2, calcite recrystallization, isotope enrichment factors, cave carbonates
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