Calcium carbonate is a fundamental non-metallic mineral raw material. People use calcium carbonate-based materials in various production. It is important to both the national economy and everyday life. Calcium carbonate finds broad applications in plastics, architectural coatings, paints, papermaking, rubber, inks, pigments, adhesives, sealants, personal care products, toothpaste, food, pharmaceuticals, and many other fields.
Due to its abundant availability, low cost, wide range of uses, simple processing, and adaptable technologies, calcium carbonate has attracted significant industry attention. It plays a crucial role as a foundational material for emerging industries and high-tech applications.
1. Application in Polymer-Based Composites
There are many traditional preparation and use of calcium carbonate. However, calcium carbonate whiskers—with their rod-like fibrous structures—can enhance the mechanical properties of polymer materials, including tensile strength, flexural strength, and impact resistance, and have thus garnered research interest.
Studies show that adding just 0.1% by mass of calcium carbonate can increase the dynamic modulus of PHBV by 76% and the loss modulus by 175%. Improved crystallinity of the composite and increased tortuosity of gas pathways significantly reduce oxygen and water vapor permeability.
2. Application in Flame-Retardant Materials
In flame retardancy, in polymer-based composites and wood modification, calcium carbonate is also very useful. In polymer/natural fiber composites, it’s especially crucial. Crystalline calcium carbonate can serve as both a reinforcing agent and a flame retardant.
Upon heating, calcium carbonate decomposes and releases CO₂, which lowers the surface temperature of burning materials, dilutes flammable gases, and acts as a barrier to oxygen diffusion—achieving a flame-retardant effect.
3. Application in Hydrogels
Under acidic conditions, calcium carbonate promotes tissue regeneration and can biodegrade within the body. A slightly acidic environment regulates the release of calcium ions, which form ionic bonds within hydrogels to improve their mechanical strength.
To further enhance bio-performance, researchers often combine calcium carbonate with other inorganic materials in hydrogel formulations.
4. Application in Photocatalytic Materials
Research has shown that combining cyano group defects with calcium carbonate significantly enhances the NOₓ removal efficiency of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄), increasing it from 34.05% (unmodified) to 51.18%.
This is attributed to calcium carbonate’s basic properties and its role in neutralizing acidic nitrogen oxides. When combined with g-C₃N₄, calcium carbonate not only aids in NOₓ adsorption through acid-base interactions but also acts as a transfer center for photo-generated charge carriers, facilitating effective photocatalytic degradation of NOₓ gases.
5. Application in New Energy Materials
Zinc-air batteries, as aqueous rechargeable batteries have advantages such as safety, low cost, and environmental friendliness, making them a promising green energy storage technology. However, they often suffer from rapid capacity fade and poor cycling stability.
Researchers have found that coating the zinc anode with nano-calcium carbonate improves battery durability by guiding the uniform and orderly deposition and release of zinc ions during charge and discharge cycles.
6. Application in Radiative Cooling Materials
The infrared emissive properties of inorganic materials mainly stem from their anionic groups. Calcium carbonate exhibits excellent infrared emissivity in the atmospheric window (8–13 μm).
As a widely available material—derived from natural sources such as shells and eggshells—calcium carbonate enables the recycling of biomass waste into radiative cooling materials. This not only reduces cost but also supports sustainable development.
Currently, calcium carbonate is often combined with polymers and functional additives to produce composite coatings. In many cases, radiative cooling is integrated with other functionalities to enhance performance via passive thermal regulation.
7. Application in Thermal Energy Storage
Calcium carbonate possesses excellent thermal conductivity, mechanical properties, sealing ability, and chemical stability. It can be used to encapsulate phase-change materials in microcapsules. The microcapsule shell formed has good protective properties and a longer service life. Moreover, calcium carbonate is environmentally friendly, and the microcapsules made with it are sustainable materials. The encapsulated phase-change materials mainly include n-octadecane or composite paraffin systems.
8. Application in Cancer Treatment
Calcium carbonate, due to its low cost, good bioabsorption, and biocompatibility, can be used in drug delivery systems for cancer treatment. However, typical micron-sized calcium carbonate, due to its high crystallinity, reduces its degradation rate in biological systems, which severely affects drug release efficiency. Scientists have employed amorphous calcium carbonate nanoparticles as drug delivery systems. Compared to crystalline calcium carbonate, amorphous calcium carbonate is more easily hydrolyzed in the intracellular environment, which is more conducive to drug release.
9. Application in the New Papermaking Field
Researchers have prepared flexible, deformable calcium carbonate with a high length-to-diameter ratio by using nanocellulose as a template. First, nanocellulose is dispersed in water, and after thorough stirring, carbon dioxide is introduced, causing calcium oxide to form calcium carbonate around the nanocellulose in situ. The resulting calcium carbonate is 10–30 μm wide and 30–200 μm long, adsorbed onto the surface of the nanocellulose and is not easily collapsed. This flexible, deformable calcium carbonate is added to pulp and made into paper by a wet pressing method. The cellulose in high-calcium paper has strong bonding forces and excellent tensile strength. The deformability of calcium carbonate imparts a smoother surface to the paper. This method can transition paper production from being wood-based to being calcium carbonate-based, reducing the use of wood and contributing to the sustainable development of the paper industry.
10. Application in Building Materials
Calcium carbonate whiskers are compatible with cement additives and are commonly used to enhance cement. Ordinary concrete is prone to cracking under impact, but calcium carbonate whiskers can control the development of cracks. In recent years, the use of calcium carbonate whiskers, stainless steel fibers, basalt fibers, and other multi-scale hybrid fibers to reinforce concrete has become a growing trend.
11. Application in Water Treatment
Calcium carbonate has excellent buffering capacity, neutralizing ability, and adsorption properties, making it suitable for water and wastewater treatment. In water treatment, calcium carbonate can regulate pH, remove pollutant ions, and adjust water hardness. It plays an important role in alleviating scale formation, preventing pipe blockages, and improving water resource utilization efficiency. In wastewater treatment, calcium carbonate can adsorb organic pollutants and heavy metal ions. This can reduce the concentration of harmful substances in wastewater, thereby purifying water resources.
12. Application in Soil Remediation
In the remediation of polluted soils, calcium carbonate can precipitate various heavy metal ions and adjust soil pH. This makes it an important soil remediation agent. In practical applications, calcium carbonate is often used in combination with other clays for better remediation results. Since the production of calcium carbonate requires high energy consumption and significant carbon emissions, recent advances in Microbial Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation (MICP) technology. It has low energy consumption and low carbon emissions, show great promise for soil remediation. MICP has performed excellently in both wastewater treatment and soil pollution remediation.
Epic Powder
Epic Powder Machinery is a leading manufacturer of advanced powder processing equipment, specializing in ultrafine grinding, classification, and modification systems. With decades of experience and core European technology, we provide customized solutions for calcium carbonate and other non-metallic minerals, supporting innovation across industries such as new materials, energy storage, coatings, and environmental protection. Contact us to learn more about our efficient and reliable powder processing systems.