Small-Scale Formation of Struvite by Electrochemical Deposition and Its Characterization

Precipitates with high content of struvite were harvested by electrochemical deposition method from an aqueous solution containing Mg²⁺, NH⁴⁺ and H_nPO₄ ^3-n ions. The generation of OH^- via electrochemical reduction of dissolved oxygen increased the interfacial pH near cathode, resulting into the formation of struvite precipitates. The structure, the morphology, the composition and the thermal properties of the harvested precipitates were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), micro-image analysis by high-resolution color digital camera, Infrared (IR) spectra, energy-dispersive spectrometry(EDS), element analysis (EA) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Especially a new and novel calculation method was introduced to determine exactly the struvite content in the precipitates harvested by electrochemical deposition.