Aqueous solubility of calcium citrate and interconversion between the tetrahydrate and the hexahydrate as a balance between endothermic dissolution and exothermic complex formation

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Aqueous solubility of calcium citrate tetrahydrate was found to decrease with increasing temperature, while solubility of hexahydrate increased with a transition temperature at 51.6 °C. Excess citrate increased calcium citrate solubility but decreased the calcium ion activity of the saturated solution with an initial solubility overshooting to form supersaturated solutions indicating binding of calcium to citrate with an association constant of 3.6 ± 0.1 × 104, δHo = -5.07 ± 0.04 kJ mol-1, δSo = 70.3 ± 0.3 J mol-1 K-1 at 25 °C. Dissolution of the tetrahydrate and hexahydrate was found to have δHo = 27 ± 9 kJ mol-1, δSo = -218 ± 30 J mol-1 K-1 and δHo = 57 ± 7 kJ mol-1, δSo = -126 ± 24 J mol-1 K-1, respectively, as determined from the temperature dependence of solubility corrected for complex formation. The exothermic complex formation results in inverse solubility only for the tetrahydrate with its moderate endothermic dissolution, which also precipitates at ambient temperature rather than the less soluble hexahydrate.

Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Dairy Journal
Volume57
Pages (from-to)20-28
Number of pages9
ISSN0958-6946
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016

ID: 159059642