Chan, Victor CW;
Godts, Sebastiaan;
Stahlbuhk, Amelie;
Steiger, Michael;
Orr, Scott Allan;
(2025)
Influence of temperature on crystallisation and dissolution of salts and salt mixtures in built environment.
npj Heritage Science
, 13
, Article 123. 10.1038/s40494-025-01659-1.
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Abstract
Salt weathering significantly degrades building materials, necessitating a thorough understanding of influencing factors. While prior research has focused on relative humidity (RH), temperature effects on salt crystallisation and dissolution remain less explored. This study examines selected single salts and mixtures, using the ECOS/RUSALT thermodynamic model to assess equilibrium behaviour across temperatures from 1 °C to 50 °C and RH values from 15% to 98%. Results show that crystallisation and dissolution RH generally decrease with rising temperature. Single salts exhibit monotonic changes, whereas mixtures behave variably. Calcium-rich mixtures have lower mutual crystallisation and dissolution RH than sulfate-rich ones, with further reductions in magnesium-containing mixtures. Lower temperatures promote the formation of more output salts. Model limitations are acknowledged to explain discrepancies between predictions and real-world observations. These findings enhance understanding of salt behaviour under climatic variations, aiding strategies to mitigate salt damage in building materials.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Influence of temperature on crystallisation and dissolution of salts and salt mixtures in built environment |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s40494-025-01659-1 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s40494-025-01659-1 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > Bartlett School Env, Energy and Resources |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10207929 |
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