So I'll start by saying I am not a student, nor a teacher, and this is not my hobby, but sometimes I have realizations that things may be possible and if not, why. This is one of them, I want to know why or why not.
Limestone is created from dead seashells and skeletons, made with over 50% calcium carbonate, CaCO3, among many other but minute minerals and materials such as quartz, sand, silica, etc. Nature isn't perfect. These naturally occuring limestone deposits are called GCC's, or Ground Calcium Carbonates, there are many kinds, and they are formed in many areas, over long periods of time under layers and layers of sediment. It is at its core a sedimentary rock, which CAN be formed chemically through pressure dissolution, where the pressure physically pushes the calcium carbonate to dissolve in other materials to create limestone itself. The CaCO3 acts as a cement.
Going the other way, and breaking limestone down, or GCC, you can first pull the CO2 out of it by super heating it for long periods at a time, leaving Ca0, which when mixed with... I honestly forgot this, hydrochloric acid? Breaks it down into a paste. Its super insoluable however, so only a little of this refined limestone paste and a lot of water, H2O, creates a clear liquid that isnt quite limestone. It's very pure because all of the impurities have been removed. Only after adding CO2 again, by breathing or other measures, will it turn into limewater, a pure form of limestone. By this point most if not all of the extra minerals have been weasled out, leaving a PCC, or Precipitated Calcium Carbonate.
Now we have natural and unnatural limestone, one limited to only being created from the other. But it dawned on me... why can't we just make limestone? There has to be a reason or we would have done it by now.
Why not just put Calcium, CO2, and some extra oxygen together to make limestone? Maybe add extra minerals to purposely make it impure, but perhaps stronger?
What does this require that we don't have?
If we could simply make this stone, we could capture tons of CO2 from emissions and actually put it to good use. Bones from farmed animals or passed humans who choose to give themselves up, (thats a stretch but hey) could provide the calcium, as we already can extract calcium from chicken bones quite easily. And the oxygen exists all around us in abundance.
What's stopping this from existing? Or does it exist somewhere and I simply couldn't find it?
ChemBuddy | 
Chem Reddit | 
Topic: Creating synthetic Limestone? (Read 1112 times)