Stability of the calcium sulphate ion pair at the ionic strength of seawater by potentiometry

The stability of the ion pair CaSO₄ was determined from measurement of the change in calcium ion activity with medium composition at constant ionic strength. A calcium selective PVC-matrix liquid membrane electrode was used to monitor the calcium ion activity. All measurements were performed at 1 atm, 25 ± 0.1°C and 0.7 M formal ionic strength. The evaluation of the stability constant depends on the degree of complexation between calcium and chloride and between sodium and sulphate. The dependence of K_CaSO4, on K_NaSO4 and K_CaCl can be described by the following relations:K_CaSO4=17.7 K_CaCl+16.5 (K_NaSO4=1.8)K_CaSO4=18.8 K_CaCl+17.3 (K_NaSO4=2) for K_CaCl=0–1A value of K_CaSO4=25.4 is suggested.