The mechanism of seeded precipitation of sodium aluminate solution was studied by measuring the seeded-precipitation rate and electrical conductivity online, as well as calculating the activity and fraction of ion pair. The results show that the electrical conductivity of sodium aluminate slurry linearly decreases with increasing aluminum hydroxide addition. Moreover, both the electrical conductivity of slurry and the difference in electrical conductivity between sodium aluminate solution and slurry remarkably decline in the first 60 min before gradually increasing in the preliminary 10 h and finally reaching almost the same level after 10 h. In low Na2 O concentration solution the activities of Na OH and Na Al（OH）4 in seeded precipitation are high, which can enlarge the difference in conductivity between slurry and solution. Additionally, more ion pairs exist in solution in preliminary seeded precipitation, and the adsorption of Na＋Al（OH）4- on seed surface is likely to break the equilibrium of ion pair formation and to decrease the difference in conductivity in preliminary seeded precipitation.
The structural changes of silicate anions in the desilication process with the addition of calcium hydrate alumino-carbonate were studied by measuring Raman spectra, infrared spectra and corresponding second derivative spectra. The results show that the desilication ratio in the solution prepared by the addition of sodium silicate(solution-SS) is much greater than that in the solution by the addition of green liquor(solution-GL), and low alumina concentration in the sodium aluminate solutions facilitates the desilication process. It is also shown that alumino-silicate anions in the solution-GL, and Q^3 polymeric silicate anions in solution-SS are predominant, respectively. In addition, increasing the concentration of silica favors respectively the formation of the alumino-silicate or the Q^3 silicate anions in the solution-GL or the solution-SS. Therefore, it can be inferred that the low desilication ratio in the silicate-bearing aluminate solution is mainly attributed to the existence of alumino-silicate anions.
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.
High soda content in fine alumina trihydrate（ATH） limits its application and increases the soda consumption. The variation of soda content in the fine ATH by seeded precipitation was determined by detection of electric conductivity of solution, soda content in ATH, measurement of particle size distribution and microscopic analysis. The results show that high concentration of sodium aluminate solution, ground circulative seed, low temperature or fast initial precipitation rate increases the soda content in ATH. Soda mainly exists in lattice soda and less soda in desilication product （DSP） exists in the fine ATH precipitated from sodium aluminate solution with concentration of Al2O3 （ρAl2O3） more than 160 g/L and mass ratio of alumina to silica （μSiO2） of 400, and lattice soda decreases with increasing initial precipitation temperature, aging seed, and low precipitation rate and precipitation time. Results also imply that -＋ 4）Na Al（OH ion-pair influences lattice soda content in ATH on the basis of electric conductivity variation.
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 flee energy decreased ini- tially 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.
Gui-hua LiuBo-hao ZhouYun-feng LiTian-gui QiXiao-bin Li
