Carbonates are chemical compounds that are encountered every day. They are found in numerous sedimentary rocks, in water, in food supplements, in the skeletons of marine organisms and so on. They are mainly used in construction, and pharmaceutical industry. Due to their wide distribution and occurrence in nature, it would be important to pay more attention to them not only in geography lessons, but also in chemistry lessons. To this end, a teaching unit for primary and secondary schools has been developed to help students understand carbonates, their use in everyday life, methods for their identification and the reasons why several analytical methods are required for accurate identification. As examples of materials composed of carbonates, students would examine natural rocks, ash, and slag. In relation to the latter two materials, as an interesting addition, they would also learn about the process of mineral carbonation as one of the methods of reducing the
carbon footprint in the context of green chemistry. Students will also be introduced to various techniques for the determination of carbonates, including gravimetry, calcimetry, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). A laboratory exercise is designed for the gravimetric determination of carbonates. In addition, carbonates were determined using a calcimeter, TGA and XRD as part of the master's thesis. However, these techniques will only be presented theoretically as methods used in analytical laboratories for carbonate determination as part of the teaching unit.
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