Several days back we I went to SOS childrens village orphanage Jaipur to teach

them physics. I was explaining them concepts of physics on a blackboard, the

class had been an interactive one but one question was striking my head again
and again. While I was explaining them I use chalks of two different brands one
worked smoothly but the other worked a bit roughly. I went back to my home and
checked for a reason to it, after some research I came to a conclusion that this
happens because of the amount of calcium carbonate present in a piece of chalk
that differ from brand to brand. This made me to choose a topic percentage
purity of calcium carbonate in chalk and I further researched on it.
Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound which is ionically bonded with
calcium and carbonate and chemically denoted as CaCO 3. It has a molar mass of
approximately 100g/mol. Calcium carbonate is usually found in minerals calcite
and aragonite which are the main component of shell of marine organism pearls,
pearls, snails and eggs furthermore is an active ingredient agricultural lime.
Calcium carbonate is used as an antacid which neutralises stomach but due to its
neutralising power being high excess consumption of this compound can be
hazardous. Research also explained that how is calcium carbonate make in
industries, so a way to it is when calcium oxide reacts with water the product is
calcium hydroxide. Then calcium hydroxide is further made to react with carbon
diode that gives calcium carbonate and water, so the chemical equation is as
follows: CaO + H20

Ca(OH)2

Ca(OH)2 + CO2

CaCO3

+ H2O.

The thermodynamically stable form of CaCO3 under normal conditions is hexagonal -CaCO3,
(the mineral calcite). Other forms can be prepared, the denser, (2.83 g/cc) orthorhombic CaCO3 ( the mineral aragonite) and -CaCO3, occurring as the mineral vaterite.

So know I would list some properties of calcium carbonate.

1. When calcium carbonate reacted with an acid it forms salt + water +
carbon diode is released out. For example:
CaCO3 + HCl

CaCl2 + H2 O + CO2

2. Calcium carbonate will react with water that is saturated with carbon
dioxide to form the soluble calcium bicarbonate.
CaCO3 + CO2 + H2O Ca(HCO3)2
3. When heat is provided to calcium carbonate at 840 oC calcium carbonate
decomposes also called thermal decomposition to form calcium oxide and
carbon diode, here the enthalpy is 178 KJ/mole.
CaCO3 CaO + CO2
4. When calcium carbonate is dissolved in water its ions doesnt disassociate
completely.

Further research gave me the knowledge of uses of calcium carbonate. The main use of
calcium carbonate is in the construction industry, either as a building material or
limestone aggregate for road building or as an ingredient of cement or as the
starting material for the preparation of builder's lime by burning in a kiln.
However, because of weathering mainly caused by acid rain, calcium carbonate
(in limestone form) is no longer used for building purposes on its own, but only
as a raw/primary substance for building materials. Calcium carbonate is also used in
the purification of iron from iron ore in a blast furnace. The carbonate is calcined in situ to give
calcium oxide, which forms a slag with various impurities present, and separates from the
purified iron. Fine ground calcium carbonate (GCC) is an essential ingredient in the microporous
film used in diapers and some building films as the pores are nucleated around the calcium
carbonate particles during the manufacture of the film by biaxial stretching. GCC or PCC is used
as a filler in paper because they are cheaper than wood fiber. In terms of market volume, GCC
are the most important types of fillers currently used. Printing and writing paper can contain 10
20% calcium carbonate. In North America, calcium carbonate has begun to replace kaolin in the
production of glossy paper. Europe has been practicing this as alkaline papermaking or acid-free
papermaking for some decades. PCC used for paper filling and paper coatings is precipitated
and prepared in a variety of shapes and sizes having characteristic narrow particle size
distributions and equivalent spherical diameters of 0.4 to 3 micrometres. Agricultural lime,
powdered chalk or limestone, is used as a cheap method for neutralising acidic soil, making it
suitable for planting.
In 1989, a researcher, Ken Simmons, introduced CaCO 3 into the Whetstone Brook
in Massachusetts, his hope was that the calcium carbonate would counter the acid in the
stream from acid rain and save the trout that had ceased to spawn. Although his experiment was
a success, it did increase the amount of aluminium ions in the area of the brook that was not
treated with the limestone. This shows that CaCO 3 can be added to neutralize the effects of acid
rain in river ecosystems. Currently calcium carbonate is used to neutralize acidic conditions in
both soil and water. Since the 1970s, such liming has been practiced on a large scale in Sweden
to mitigate acidification and several thousand lakes and streams are limed repeatedly. Calcium
carbonate is also used in flue gas desulfurization applications eliminating harmful SO2 and
NO2 emissions from coal and other fossil fuels burnt in large fossil fuel power stations .