Aluminothermic Reduction of Khatoon Abad Molybdenum Trioxide in Microwave: Investigation on the Effect of Aluminum Particle Size and Scale-up on the Reduction Process

Subject Areas : journal of New Materials

Kazem Sheybani Tezerji ¹ (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz)
Mohammad Hossein Paydar ² (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Engineering, Shiraz University)
Mohammad Hossein Shariat ³ (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran)

Received: 2020-04-14 Accepted : 2020-09-19 Published : 2020-08-22

Keywords: Molybdenum oxide, Aluminothermic reduction, Intermediate phase, Microwave, Sample’s mass,

Abstract :

Feasibility of aluminothermic reduction of molybdenum trioxide by microwave oven and then the effect of aluminum powder particle size and size of the sample on the reduction process was studied. XRD patterns and thermodynamic studies indicated that aluminothermic reduction of molybdenum oxide progressed through the formation of intermediate phases such as Al2 (MoO4)3 and MoO2, where the final products were elemental Mo and Al2O3. Effect of aluminum powder particles size on reduction process, aluminum powder with three different average sizes of 45, 100 and 150 microns were mixed with the molybdenum oxide in stoichiometric ratio and reduced in microwave. Results revealed that by decreasing particle size of the Al powders, the time required for both combustion and reduction processes decreased. XRD pattern revealed that undesired phases of molybdenum dioxide (MoO2) and aluminum molybdate Al2(MoO4)3 decreased by decreasing alumunim particles size and mostly Mo and Al2O3 were detected as final products. In order to investigate the effect of sample’s weight on the aluminothermic reduction of molybdenum oxide, three samples with the weight of 10, 100 and 1000 g were selected. The samples with 10 and 100 g weight were prepared by pressing in a die and were reduced in microwave. For the large sample, a traditional brick fabrication method was used and the reduction process was initiated by the help of oxyacetylene firing. XRD results showed that by increasing the mass of system, the amount of metallic Mo in molten metal was increased and decreased in slag phase.

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