Novel decomposition method for zircon

A two-step zircon decomposition method to produce zirconium oxychloride: alkali fusion and water leaching

“…The chemical inertness of zircon renders its processing a difficult task, and a large number of studies were carried out on this problem; several methods are used for industrial processing of zircon, including chlorination [7][8][9], sodium hydroxide fusion [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17], sodium carbonate fusion [11,12,17], mixed alkali fusion [18][19][20], liming fusion or other alkali metal oxides [21][22][23], sodium hydroxide solution leaching [24,25], fluorosilicate fusion [26], plasma thermal dissociation in the presence of carbon [27,28]. Alkali fusion with NaOH is the most commonly used method in China due to the advantages of technically simplicity and low reaction temperature.…”

Reaction kinetics of the microwave enhanced digestion of zircon with ammonium acid fluoride

“…Purity also plays a role and prime grade zircon is usually used in these applications [5,6]. Chemicals such as acid zirconium sulphate tetrahydrate (AZST), zirconium oxychloride (ZOC), zirconium acetate, zirconium basic sulphate (ZBS), and zirconium metal are usually manufactured from zircon [7]. In 2009 the global market for zirconium chemicals was about 10,000 tonnes and for zirconium metal between 5,000 and 10,000 tonnes [2,8].…”

The Melting Reaction Mechanism of NaOH in Decomposing Ca2SiO4

“…The use of melting alkali can provide bonding OH À to effectively decompose the silicate structure, which cannot only destroy the stable calcium and magnesium silicate structure, but also improve the grade of the nickel laterite ore, to create the conditions for the subsequent extraction and separation of nickel, iron, magnesium, and calcium. Thus, study the mechanism of alkali treatment process is a key theoretical basis in realizing the pre-desiliconization treatment of alkali processing silicon magnesium laterite nickel ore and the high added-value comprehensive utilization of nickel laterite ore. At present, people have carried out a lot of research focused on the optimization of the alkali treatment process conditions, macrokinetics, and other such aspects in predesiliconization (Abdelkader et al 2008;Hidetsugu 2003;). It is still important to further study the conversion process and reaction mechanism in silicate mineral resources' alkali treatment process from the point of the changes of mineral phase structure and chemical bonds, so as to achieve the effective control method of alkali decomposition process.…”