Experimentelle Untersuchung der Reaktion Dolomit + Kalifeldspat + H2O ? Phlogopit + Calcit + CO2

The equilibrium curve for the reaction 3 dolomite + 1 K-feldspar + 1 H₂O=1 phlogopite + 3 calcite + 3 CO₂ was determined experimentally at a total gas pressure of 2000 bars using two different methods.

1. In the first case water alone was added to the reactants. The CO₂ component of the gas phase was producted solely by the reaction under favourable P-T conditions. This manner of carrying out the reaction is called the “water method”. With this method sufficient time must be allowed for the gas phase to attain a constant composition (see Fig. 1). Reverse reactions were carried out using reaction products of the forward reaction.
2. In the second case silver oxalate + water were added to the reactants. Breakdown of the silver oxalate leads to formation of a CO₂-H₂O gasphase of definite composition. At constant temperature and gas pressure the \(X_{{\text{CO}}_{\text{2}} } \) determines whether the reaction products will be phlogopite + calcite or dolomite + K-feldspar. In this case it is not necessary to wait for equilibrium to be attained. This method is abbreviated the “oxalate method”. Reactants for reverse reactions are not identical with the products of the forward reaction.

At high temperatures the results of the two different methods agree well (see Tables 1 and 2). Equilibrium was attained in one case at 490° C and \(X_{{\text{CO}}_{\text{2}} } \) of approximately 0.77, and in the other case at 520° C and \(X_{{\text{CO}}_{\text{2}} } \) of 0.90. At lower temperatures there are considerable differences in the results. With the water method an \(X_{{\text{CO}}_{\text{2}} } \) of about 0.25 was reached at 450° C. With the oxalate method dolomite K-feldspar and water still react with each other at even higher \(X_{{\text{CO}}_{\text{2}} } \) values. Phlogopite, calcite and CO₂ are formed together with metastable talc. There are no criteria to indicate which of the methods is the correct one at lower temperatures and in Fig. 2, therefore, both equilibrium curves are plotted.