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Purification Mechanism of Quartz Sand by Combination of Microwave Heating and Ultrasound Assisted Acid Leaching Treatment

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Abstract

Iron is a major impurity in quartz sand and must be strictly removed in many applications. However, the iron removal rate in most of the conventional purification process is not high enough. In this study, a fast, low-energy consuming, environment-friendly and simple process for purifying quartz is demonstrated by a combination of microwave heating and ultrasound-assisted acid leaching treatment. Using the characteristics of selective heating of microwave, the micro-inclusions burst and generate cracks in the surrounding quartz matrix far below the α/β phase transition temperature, which enables removal of the impurities in the subsequent processing steps and reduces iron diffusion into the quartz matrix. Microwave process sequence, time, and temperature are all important factors, and appropriate parameters need to be explored. Ultrasound can assist acid leaching removal of Fe impurities through the cracks. Under optimized conditions, the iron content can be reduced to below 0.167 ppmw with one single purification pass.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.51874272, No.51804294); Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. 1808085ME121); Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic and Energy Conservation Materials, Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. ECL2019ZD005, PECL2018QN002); State Key Laboratory of Refractories and Metallurgy (Wuhan University of Science and Technology) (No. G201910); CPSF-CAS Joint Foundation for Excellent Postdoctoral Fellows (No. 2016LH0017); CASHIPS Director’s Funds (Grant No. YYJJ201624); State Key Laboratory of Refractories and (Wuhan University of Science and Technology(G201910); State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse Foundation, (NO. PCRRF18017), iCET.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic and Energy Conservation Materials, Institute of Applied Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230088, China

    Feifei Li, Xuesong Jiang, Jingwei Li, Boyuan Ban & Jian Chen

  2. University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Feifei Li & Xuesong Jiang

  3. Shandong Aluminum Vocational College, Weihai, 264400, China

    Qiuxia Zuo

  4. State Key Laboratory of Refractories and Metallurgy (Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430081, China

    Jingwei Li

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  1. Feifei Li
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Correspondence to Jian Chen.

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Li, F., Jiang, X., Zuo, Q. et al. Purification Mechanism of Quartz Sand by Combination of Microwave Heating and Ultrasound Assisted Acid Leaching Treatment. Silicon 13, 531–541 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-020-00457-7

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