THE EFFECT OF ZETA POTENTIAL ON

THE SEDIMENTATION BEHAVIOR

OF NATURAL STONE PROCESSING
EFFLUENT
By:
Made Ratih Mettaswari Senet 1308105033
Ni Wayan Indah Paramitha
1308105004
Ni Putu Noviyanti
1308105017
Ni Made Rica Dwi Adnyani
1308105036

Abstrac
For the natural stone industry treatment of huge amount of
waste sludge resulting from the cutting and polishing of them
to produce slabs or tiles are main problems. The effective
treatment of this sludge is very important for reducing of the
sludge volume and overall operating costs. A group of
phenomena known collectively as electrokinetic effects, can be
exploited as the basis for determining zeta potentials.
In this study, detailed electrokinetic studies were performed
on the travertine samples received as natural and slurry form.
The electrokinetic measurements were conducted to find out
the effect of suspension pH and the solid content on the
surface potential of solid particles show that zeta potential ()
of travertine is positive at pH 9.76 over the all solid contents
studied in this work.

The samples were performed by the electrophoretic

method using Zetasizer Nano ZS (Malvern Inst, UK). In
each measurement, the suspension was prepared by
placing predetermined amount of solid sample, 1, 3, 5, and
10% solid weight, into the 100 cm3 beaker or for slurry
sample, a 50 cm3 of suspension was placed on a magnetic
stirrer, stirred for 10 min and kept for 2 min to allow the
coarser particles to settle. The raw travertine sample was
firstly crushed and ground in a porcelain ball mill in order
to decrease its size for electrokinetic measurements. The
chemical
composition
determined
by
the
X-Ray
fluorescence (XRF), and the physical properties of
representative sample is given in Table 1. As can be seen
from Table 1, the raw sample mainly consists of CaCO3 with
a little amount of MgO, SiO2 and Fe2O3.

Solubility and gravity settling of travertine

particles in waste slurry
The term travertine generally means carbonate rocks (limestone)
deposited by supersaturated alkaline mineral waters. Calcium carbonate
is poorly soluble in pure water
CaCO3 (s) Ca2+(aq) + CO3-2(aq)
Ksp = 5.10-9
H2O + CO2 H2CO3
CaCO3 + H2CO3 Ca2+ + 2 HCO3
The solubility test performed with a supernatant consisting of 5 to 15%
solid showed that Ca2+ and Mg2+ ion concentrations of solutions slightly
increase with increasing solid content and contact time, however, in
general, it can be concluded that the concentrations of calcium and
magnesium ions are independent of the solids content. The movement of
the sludge zone as a function of settling time is given in Figure 1. It
was found that sedimentation of fine particles in waste slurry completed
within 10 min of setting time.

 From that figure, It was found that sedimentation of fine

particles in waste slurry completed within 10 min of setting
time.

ELECTROKINETIC
MEASUREMENTS

The raw travertine sample are given in Fig. 2 and Fig.

3, respectively. It was found that the potential of
travertine particles is positive over the whole solid
contents range at pH 9.76. The values of potential
increase, with increasing solid content from 2.64 mV, to
7.62 mV (for 5% solid weight). A further increase in solids
content, resulted in a slight decrease of potential.

The electrokinetic results given in Fig. 3 indicated that potential of

travertine particles have two isoelectrical points (IEP) and the potential
values changed between 3 to +3 mV as a function of the solution pH.
The potentials slightly move to lower potentials (as negative) with
increasing OH- concentration of the solution The positive sign can be due
to the adsorption of protons. However, we should consider the
contribution of foreign cations and anions or organic impurities adsorbed
on the particle surface generally observed for natural travertine and
calcite samples.

If a smaller quantity of sample is used or if the pH decreases than

the IEP, the dissolution will cause a diminution of grains, and
consequently the diminution of the available surface area, and potential of the surface becomes more negative.

Figure 4 shows that the potential profile of the solid particles

present in the travertine slurry. Differently from the above findings,
the particle surface is negatively charged even at lower pH values.
This could be attributed to higher concentrations of dissolved

In order to examine the effect of these ions on surface potential, the potential measurements were also performed with different amounts of
NaCl additions in measurement solutions (Fig. 5). The result confirmed the
potential of the particle is sensitive to the ionic strength of the solution. In
general, potential of the surface increases with increasing NaCl
concentration. However, compared to electrolyte-free solution, addition of a
lower amount of NaCl to the solution decreases potential of particles. For
0.002 M NaCl addition, -potential of the solid surface decreases from 2.64
mV to -1.34 mV

 The variation of zeta potentials as a function of

polymer concentration for flocculation process is given
at Fig. 6.

The variation of zeta potentials as a function of

polymer concentration for flocculation process is given at Fig. 6.
The conclution for that figure is Positive surface charge of calcite
was reduced by introduction of fulvic acid to the solution. The high
affinity of fulvic acid molecules for calcium carbonate surface is
due to electrostatic attraction between positively charged surface
sites and the negative charge.
The magnitude of zeta potential gives an indication of the
potential stability of the colloidal system. If all the particles in
suspension have a large negative or positive zeta potential then
they will tend to repel each other and there will be no tendency for
the particles to come together. On the other hand, if the particles
have low zeta potential values, then there will be no force to
prevent the particles coming together and coagulation

CONCLUSION
The electrochemical measurement results showed that the
surface charges of the travertine particles in distilled water are
strongly affected by the suspension pH and the solid content of
solution. It was found that the surface potential of solid particles
is positive at pH 9.76 over the all solid contents studied.
The particle surfaces are negatively charged between pH values
of 6 and 8 due to the higher concentrations of dissolved specific
ions i.e. Ca2+ and Mg2+ in the waste slurry. These results
highlight the importance of influence of the source of the
slurries on the surface charge or the magnitude of potential of
particles and confirmed that potential of the particle surface is
sensitive to the ionic strength of the solution
The measurements in the presence of polymer concentration
of 0.001% to 0.1 % (wt/vol) clearly indicated that the flocculant
molecules are adsorbed extensively on the travertine particles,

THANKS FOR YOUR

ATTENTION