Amorphous silica solubilities—III. Activity coefficient relations and predictions of solubility behavior in salt solutions, 0–350°C

Activity coefficients of amorphous silica in added salt solutions, obtained from solubility measurements, were calculated on the basis of concentration (molarity) and composition (molality). The logarithm of the activity coefficients based on concentration when plotted against molarity of added salt, as previous observations would dictate, yielded straight line relations even to 6 M. The use of composition units produced instead curves at the highest molalities and caused divergences in behavior from the single straight lines for 1-1 salts of a common cation. Introduction of the activity of water also caused divergences in behavior. Thus, it might appear that amorphous silica is fully hydrated at 25°C as a solid in equilibrium with solution. Lack of densities of aqueous sodium nitrate necessitated using units of molality in interpretations at high temperatures. Nevertheless, approximately straight line behavior of log activity coefficient vs m was still observed to reasonably high molalities, and allowed a simple equation to describe activity coefficient behavior as a function of both molality of sodium nitrate and temperature. The simplicity of the relation, with some assumptions, might be used to predict solubility of amorphous silica at high temperatures in other added aqueous salt solutions.