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Thermodynamic Analysis and Experiment on the Conversion of Niobium Ferrite to Pyrochlore

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Abstract

Niobium reserves are primarily found in the form of niobium ferrite in the modern world due to the mining and depletion of niobium resources. Niobium ferrite contains an excessive amount of iron, which makes it more challenging to enrich and waste niobium during the concentration process. The reaction mechanism for converting niobium ferrite to pyrochlore was therefore thermodynamically estimated using a two-parameter model in this paper, and it was determined that the reaction could continue as expected. The synthesis of niobium ferrite and its transformation into pyrochlore were accomplished using solid-phase synthesis, and the results were examined using x-ray diffraction and SEM − EDS. The results indicated: (1) the synthesized niobium ferrite was of high purity; (2) the best reaction temperature was 1173 K, and the reactant molar ratio of Na2O:2CaO:2FeNb2O6:C was 1:1:1:2; (3) the addition of excess calcium oxide is detrimental in the conversion of niobium ferrite to pyrochlore, but the addition of excess C can facilitate the reaction and bring better economic benefits. Thus, a thermodynamic diagram of the pyrochlore conversion process was constructed by the analysis of XRD. In this paper, the conversion of niobium ferrite ore to pyrochlore was calculated to be thermodynamically feasible and verified by experiment.

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Acknowledgements

Authors express gratitude to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 92062223 and No.52004340) for their financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Xin Peng, Fenglong Sun, Xingyu Chen, Xuheng Liu, Jiangtao Li, Lihua He & Zhongwei Zhao

  2. Key Laboratory of Hunan Province for Metallurgy and Material Processing of Rare Metals, Changsha, 410083, China

    Fenglong Sun, Xuheng Liu, Jiangtao Li, Lihua He & Zhongwei Zhao

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  1. Xin Peng
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  2. Fenglong Sun
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  3. Xingyu Chen
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  4. Xuheng Liu
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Correspondence to Fenglong Sun.

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Peng, X., Sun, F., Chen, X. et al. Thermodynamic Analysis and Experiment on the Conversion of Niobium Ferrite to Pyrochlore. JOM 75, 5188–5197 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-023-05901-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-023-05901-8

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