102. Fact - Calcification Part 2.

So, I'm fed up of making work and having bad feedback. I'm going to look more into calcification and do something unrelated to my initial ideas. Yet somehow linking because calcium is seen in all sorts of things, so forgetting egg shells seems entirely irrelevant as eggs are a perfect example of a balance of calcium that is needed for the body.

How to make Calcium using Egg Shells

Baking Soda

Info from Jen.

To make deposites of Calcium build up takes along time. Calcium (which is a metal) needs to be deposited in salts like the white bits that build up around taps and in kettles. (Limescale: Calcium Bicarbonate)



One thing that is really good is that there is calcium in plaster of paris. So what you have been working with contains calcium. In the form of Gypsum. Gypsum is what quartz is made of for example, its just a different organisation compared to the white cliffs of dover (or chalk). So your material is really relevant to your chosen process.



The term calcification does (as far as wikipedia tells me) concern itself with the hardening of soft tissue.



I found this definition, but you probably know all this:








cal·ci·fi·ca·tion (kls-f-kshn)
n.
1. Impregnation with calcium or calcium salts. Also called calcareous infiltration.
2. Hardening, as of tissue, by such impregnation.
3. A calcified substance or part.
The American Heritage® Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2007, 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
calcification
Etymology: L, calx + facere, to make
the accumulation of calcium salts in tissues. Normally, about 99% of all the calcium entering the human body is deposited in the bones and teeth; the remaining 1% is dissolved in body fluids such as blood. Disorders affecting the delicate balance between calcium and other minerals, parathyroid hormone, and vitamin D can result in calcium deposits in arteries, kidneys, lung alveoli, and other tissues, interfering with normal organ function. See also calcitonin, calcium, calculus. calcific, adj.



Ive read the following: Calcium bicarbonate is soluble in water, however at temperatures above 70 °C the soluble bicarbonate is converted to poorly-soluble carbonate, leading to deposits in places where water is heated.[1] Local boiling “hot spots” can also occur when water is heated, resulting in the concentration and deposition of salts from the water.

The following might not work, but then again it might, because it happens to our kettles.?

I would try saturate a liquid (water perhaps?) with a calcium salt (some one on the internet DEFINITELY sells Calcium Bicarbonate, probably else where as well) in a pan for boiling (quite large maybe?). So just add all the Calcium Bicarbonate and make it disolve untill no more can be disolved. You can use heat to increase the rate of solubility (how fast the Bicabonate disolves) and keep on stirring it, HOWEVER! use a caramel thermometer or some equivalent thing if your going to use heat becuase you do not want to go over 70 °C. Once its saturated, put some things into the water. AND BOIL IT UP! Add metal things, rubber things, things with cavities and holes, maybe those moulds of teeth you did? I dont know what would happen to the plaster of paris in there so try with a trial piece first? For example one of the things from the workshop.? (Becuase your egg fitting into each other things are really nice.) Maybe try an egg shell? Or a pigs heart? Marbles?

Keep doing this and you will see if there are deposites building up in the pan and on the objects inside. And do replenish the saturated liquid. Maybe you could just try with tap water?
It might work. I do not know for sure. But only say this becuase of this thing I read before: "Calcium bicarbonate is soluble in water, however at temperatures above 70 °C the soluble bicarbonate is converted to poorly-soluble carbonate, leading to deposits in places where water is heated.[1] Local boiling “hot spots” can also occur when water is heated, resulting in the concentration and deposition of salts from the water."

The chemistry behind this is a bit more complicated, I know there are certain things that the calcium bicarbonate will be attracted too, so let me ask some actual chemistry people what they think of all this. I only know calcification through the little geology and geophysics I did. It is amazing what is made from Calcium, Gypsum is amazing! But gypsum is made under high pressure and temperature under the eaths and when it cools down really slowly you get big crystals.....Dover is more like uber compressed layers of the stuff, thats why its all flakey and chalky. Perhaps that calcium came from shells of bivalves and moluscs etc.. (I dont know....But Ill read up about it)

That would be something worth looking up, how snails and moluscs build up their shells, becuase they are also made of Calcium Carbonate.

Anyway, you want to use Calcium Bicarbonate, becuase Calcuim Carbonate will not easily disolve in water (hence why shells are made of it)

Info clickety!: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_bicarbonate

Shells

Wiki shells