Tiangui Qi

Thermodynamics of chromite ore oxidative roasting process

To explicate the thermodynamics of the chromite ore lime-free roasting process, the thermodynamics of reactions involved in this process was calculated and the phrases of sinter with different roasting times were studied. The thermodynamics calculation shows that all the standard Gibbs free energy changes of the reactions to form Na2CrO4, Na2O·Fe2O3, Na2O·Al2O3 and Na2O·SiO2 via chromite ore and Na2CO3 are negative, and the standard Gibbs free energy changes of the reactions between MgO, Fe2O3 and SiO2 released from chromite spinel to form MgO·Fe2O3 and MgO·SiO2 are also negative at the oxidative roasting temperatures (1 173–1 473 K). The phrase analysis of the sinter in lime-free roasting process shows that Na2O·Fe2O3, Na2O·Al2O3 and Na2O·SiO2 can be formed in the first 20 min, but they decrease in contents and finally disappear with the increase of roasting time. The final phase compositions of the sinter are Na2CrO4, MgO·Fe2O3, MgO·SiO2 and MgO. The results indicate that Na2CrO4 can be formed easily via the reaction of Na2CO3 with chromite ore. Na2O·Fe2O3, Na2O·Al2O3 and Na2O·SiO2 can be formed as intermediate compounds in the roasting process and they can further react with chromite ore to form Na2CrO4. MgO released from chromite ore may react with iron oxides and silicon oxide to form stable compounds of MgO·Fe2O3 and MgO·SiO2, respectively.

Surface properties of superfine alumina trihydrate after surface modification with stearic acid

The surface properties of superfine alumina trihydrate (ATH) after surface modification were studied by measuring the contact angle, active ratio, oil adsorption, total organic carbon, adsorption ratio, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum. The contact angle increased initially and then slowly decreased with an increase of the amount of stearic acid. However, the surface free energy decreased initially and then increased. Surface modification with stearic acid or sodium stearate can benefit from elevating temperature. The base surface tension component and the free energy of Lewis acid-base both declined sharply following the surface modification. Excess stearic acid was physically adsorbed in the form of multilayer adsorption, and an interaction between oxygen on the ATH surface and hydroxyl in stearic acid was subsequently determined. Our results further indicated that the contact angle and adsorption ratio can be used as control indicators for surface modification compared with active ratio, oil adsorption and total organic carbon.

Precipitation of spherical boehmite from concentrated sodium aluminate solution by adding gibbsite as seed

The precipitation of spherical boehmite was studied by surface energy calculations, measurements of precipitation ratios, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The surface energy calculation results show that the (001) and (112) planes of gibbsite surfaces are remarkably stable because of their low surface energies. In addition, the (010) plane of boehmite grows preferentially during precipitation because of its low surface energy. Thus, we propose a method to precipitate spherical boehmite from a supersaturated sodium aluminate solution by adding gibbsite as seed in a heterogeneous system. In this method, gibbsite acts as the preliminary seed and saturation modifier. The results show that the fine boehmite first nucleates on the (001) and (112) planes of gibbsite and then grows vertically on the (001) and (112) basal planes of gibbsite via self-assembly, thereby forming spherical boehmite. Simultaneously, gibbsite is dissolved into the aluminate solution to maintain the saturation for the precipitation of boehmite. The precipitation ratio fluctuates (forming an M-shaped curve) because of gibbsite dissolution and boehmite precipitation. The mechanism of boehmite precipitation was further discussed on the basis of the differences in surface energy and solubility between gibbsite and boehmite. This study provides an environmentally friendly and economical method to prepare specific boehmite in a heterogeneous system.