How Water Dissolves Stone, Molecule by Molecule

International team uses computers, experiments to better predict chemical dissolution 

Scientists from Rice University and the University of Bremen’s Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) in Germany have combined cutting-edge experimental techniques and computer simulations to find a new way of predicting how water dissolves crystalline structures like those found in natural stone and cement. 

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The dissolution process of a crystalline structure in water is shown: two bonded SiO4 -- molecules dissolve (top left), a quartz crystal (top right) and the computer-simulated surface of a dissolving crystalline structure (below). (Credit: MARUM & Rice University)

Credit: http://news.rice.edu