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Minerals
Special Issues
Dissolution and Precipitation Dynamics at the Mineral–Fluid Interface
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Dissolution and Precipitation Dynamics at the Mineral–Fluid Interface

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Mineralogy and Biogeochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2025) | Viewed by 4160

Special Issue Editors

Dr. André Pinto

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Guest Editor
Department of Mineralogy and Petrology, Faculty of Geosciences, University Complutense of Madrid, C/Jose António Novais 12, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: experimental mineralogy; fluid–mineral interactions; mineral replacement reactions; crystal growth
Dr. Nuria Sánchez-Pastor

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mineralogy and Crystallography, Faculty of Geological Sciences, University Complutense of Madrid, C/José Antonio Novais 2, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: environmental chemistry and remediation; biomineralization and crystal growth
Dr. Athanasios Godelitsas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Geology and Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15784 Athens, Greece
Interests: mineral surface science and nanogeoscience; microporous/nanoporous minerals and rocks; environmental mineralogy and geochemistry; biomineralogy and medical geology; mineral atmospheric particles; marine mineralogy and geochemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Mineral reactivity is a major factor controlling the natural fluxes of matter and energy in the Geosphere. In fact, all large-scale geological phenomena are underpinned by physical-chemical reactions involving mineral compounds and fluids, throughout a wide spectrum of pressure and temperature conditions, and at different time scales. From the paragenetic pathways followed by subsolidus metamorphic reactions, to the low temperature progressive development of lateritic soils; from the large-scale hydrothermalism affecting oceanic plates at tectonic spreading centers, to the precipitation of salts by evaporation of seawater in coastal sabkhas; the key to understand complex geological processes often rests in mineral stability/reactivity features. Beyond the realm of the Geosphere, and especially at the interface between the latter and the Biosphere, mineral-fluid-organism/organic substance interactions are central to the dynamics of the Earth's Critical Zone, especially those involving the chemical interplay between silicates and soil organics. Under a more applied perspective, the study of mineral-fluid interactions is of great importance to the characterization and prediction of the mobility of hazardous elements and compounds in the environment. Concerning environmental remediation, specific coupled mineral dissolution-precipitation reactions, and/or surface sorption mechanisms, are frequently efficient methods for correcting aqueous concentrations of targeted pollutants.  Finally, all biomineralization processes, regardless of the type of organism and physiological context, are strongly dependent on the thermodynamic and kinetic forcing factors of dissolution, nucleation, and growth of critical biomineral systems, such as calcium phosphates, carbonates, or oxalates. 

The present Special Issue invites submissions of original research related to the study of mineral-fluid interactions, especially those concerning mineral dissolution/precipitation features, in various contexts (geoscientific, experimental mineralogy, environmental management-remediation, material sciences, biomineralization, etc.).

Dr. André Pinto
Dr. Nuria Sánchez-Pastor
Dr. Athanasios Godelitsas
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • mineral dissolution–precipitation
  • mineral surface reactivity
  • sorption mechanisms
  • mineral replacement
  • environmental remediation
  • biomineralization

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 2276 KB  
Article
Surface Charge and Size Evolution of Silica–Iron Colloidal Particles in Simulated Late-Archaean Seawater
by Weiming Jiang, Xiao Wu, Hongmei Yang, Juan Fu, Qirui Zeng, Sizhe Li, Ruiyao Luo, Yiping Yang, Xiaoju Lin and Jianxi Zhu
Minerals 2025, 15(11), 1123; https://doi.org/10.3390/min15111123 - 28 Oct 2025
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1115 | Correction
Abstract
Late-Archean seawater functioned as a vast, redox-tuned colloidal system for which its kinetics were largely governed by the surface chemistry of silica–iron nanoparticles. By reproducing Archean seawater (≈0.7 M ionic strength, 25 °C) in laboratory anoxic-to-mildly oxic reactors, the ζ potential (zeta-potential(ζ)) of [...] Read more.
Late-Archean seawater functioned as a vast, redox-tuned colloidal system for which its kinetics were largely governed by the surface chemistry of silica–iron nanoparticles. By reproducing Archean seawater (≈0.7 M ionic strength, 25 °C) in laboratory anoxic-to-mildly oxic reactors, the ζ potential (zeta-potential(ζ)) of silica–iron nanoparticles was investigated, and we tracked how transient O2 pulses (≤9 mg L−1) regulated it. The zeta (ζ) potential was applied as the key diagnostic parameter to quantify both the sign of the ζ potential and the colloidal stability of simulated silica–iron particles in dispersion. Under strictly anoxic conditions, silica colloids (SiO2(aq)) exhibit a persistently negative ζ potential (ζ ≈ −25 mV) in the simulated seawater (pH 6.5), arising from deprotonated silanol groups (≡Si–O−). Upon the addition of Fe2+, the inner-sphere complexation of ferrous ions on SiO2 colloids partially replaces ≡Si–O− with ≡Si–O–Fe+/≡Si–O–Fe–OH sites; the net negative charge density at the outer Stern plane nevertheless increases, and the ζ potential shifts from −25 mV to −30 mV. As the simulated seawater was oxygenated, the dissolved and surface-bound Fe2+ ions were oxidized to Fe3+, causing the ζ potential to exceed −30 mV. This study demonstrates that Fe2+–silica interactions generate electrostatic destabilization, suspending micron-scale aggregates and thus modulating the solubility and speciation of SiO2 in early oceans. Also, transient micro-oxic pulses are shown to shift silica–iron colloids between metastable aggregation and dispersion by modulating their ζ potential. Subsequently, AFM and TEM were used to characterize the morphological changes in the colloidal particles from the liquid state to the dry state. Furthermore, infrared and XPS analyses were conducted on the colloidal samples. These findings provide certain reference significance for reconstructing the chemical evolution process of seawater in the Late-Archean period and for understanding the factors influencing the silicon–iron cycle of seawater in the Late-Archean era. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dissolution and Precipitation Dynamics at the Mineral–Fluid Interface)
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13 pages, 3858 KB  
Article
The Controlling Effect of CaCO3 Supersaturation over Zn Carbonate Assemblages: Co-Crystallization in Silica Hydrogel
by André Jorge Pinto, Nuria Sánchez-Pastor and Angeles Fernández-González
Minerals 2024, 14(12), 1274; https://doi.org/10.3390/min14121274 - 15 Dec 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1931
Abstract
Weathering products of sphalerite-bearing ores play an important role in controlling the fate of Zn in the environment. In this framework, the relative stability of Zn carbonates is of special relevance for the common case of ore weathering by carbonated groundwater in the [...] Read more.
Weathering products of sphalerite-bearing ores play an important role in controlling the fate of Zn in the environment. In this framework, the relative stability of Zn carbonates is of special relevance for the common case of ore weathering by carbonated groundwater in the presence of calcium carbonates. We investigated the experimental (co)nucleation and growth of Zn and Ca carbonates at 25 °C in finite double diffusion silica hydrogel media with the purpose of deciphering the system’s reactive pathway and unraveling the major governing factors behind the obtained mineral assemblages. The crystallized solids were carefully extracted two months post-nucleation and studied with micro-Raman spectroscopy, micro X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy, and electron microprobe (EMP) methods. The obtained results indicate that the grown Zn-bearing phases corresponded to smithsonite and/or Zn hydroxyl carbonate, while CaCO3 polymorphs aragonite and calcite were also crystallized. Moreover, the observed mineral textural relationships reflected the interplay between supersaturation with respect to CaCO3/pCO2 and the grown Zn-bearing carbonate. Experiments conducted in more supersaturated conditions with respect to CaCO3 polymorphs (higher pCO2) favored the precipitation of smithsonite, while the opposite was true for the obtained Zn hydroxyl carbonate phase. The gathered Raman, XRD, and EMP data indicate that the latter phase corresponded to a non-stoichiometric, poorly crystalline solid. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dissolution and Precipitation Dynamics at the Mineral–Fluid Interface)
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