Aluminum alumina impurity

In 1990, appioximately 66,000 metric tons of alumina trihydiate [12252-70-9] AI2O2 3H20, the most widely used flame retardant, was used to inhibit the flammabihty of plastics processed at low temperatures. Alumina trihydrate is manufactured from either bauxite ore or recovered aluminum by either the Bayer or sinter processes (25). In the Bayer process, the bauxite ore is digested in a caustic solution, then filtered to remove siUcate, titanate, and iron impurities. The alumina trihydrate is recovered from the filtered solution by precipitation. In the sinter process the aluminum is leached from the ore using a solution of soda and lime from which pure alumina trihydrate is recovered (see Aluminum compounds). 

No cryolite is actually needed once the smelting process is in operation because cryolite is produced in the reduction cells by neutralizing the Na20 brought into the cell as an impurity in the alumina using aluminum fluoride. 

Molten aluminum is removed from the cells by siphoning, generally daily, into a cmcible. Normally the metal is 99.6—99.9% pure. The principal impurities are Ee, Si, Ti, V, and Mn, and come largely from the anode, but also from the alumina. 

The term alumina hydrates or hydrated aluminas is used in industry and commerce to designate aluminum hydroxides. These compounds are tme hydroxides and do not contain water of hydration. Several forms are known a general classification is shown in Figure 1. The most weU-defined crystalline forms ate the trihydroxides, Al(OH) gibbsite [14762-49-3], bayerite [20257-20-9], and nordstrandite [13840-05-6], In addition, two aluminum oxide—hydroxides, AIO(OH), boelimite [1318-23-6] and diaspote [14457-84-2], have been clearly defined. The existence of several other forms of aluminum hydroxides have been claimed. However, there is controversy as to whether they ate truly new phases or stmctures having distorted lattices containing adsorbed or intedameUar water and impurities. 

Alumina (AfOf. Alumina is produced by calcining either bauxite or aluminum hydroxide in rotary Idlns at temperatures from 1250 to 1600 K. In obtaining the highest-purity alumina, the bauxite is digested with alkah to remove impurities the resultant aluminum hydroxide [AlgfOH) ], of approximately 200-mesh size, is then calcined in rotaiy Idlns at 1350 K. 

Aluminum is the most abundant metallic element in the Earth s crust and, after oxygen and silicon, the third most abundant element (see Fig. 14.1). However, the aluminum content in most minerals is low, and the commercial source of aluminum, bauxite, is a hydrated, impure oxide, Al203-xH20, where x can range from 1 to 3. Bauxite ore, which is red from the iron oxides that it contains (Fig. 14.23), is processed to obtain alumina, A1203, in the Bayer process. In this process, the ore is first treated with aqueous sodium hydroxide, which dissolves the amphoteric alumina as the aluminate ion, Al(OH)4 (aq). Carbon dioxide is then bubbled through the solution to remove OH ions as HCO and to convert some of the aluminate ions into aluminum hydroxide, which precipitates. The aluminum hydroxide is removed and dehydrated to the oxide by heating to 1200°C. 

Aluminum oxide, A1203, is known almost universally as alumina. It exists with a variety of crystal structures, many of which form important ceramic materials (see Section 14.22). As a-alumina, it is the very hard, stable, crystalline substance corundum impure microcrystalline corundum is the purple-black abrasive known as emery. Some impure forms of alumina are beautiful, rare, and highly prized (Fig. 14.25). A less dense and more reactive form of the oxide is y-alumina. This form absorbs water and is used as the stationary phase in chromatography. 

The major raw materials used at present for the production of alumina are bauxites, which are found in the following mineral forms gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (AlO OH), and diaspore (AlO OH). The major impurities are the oxides of iron, silicon, and titanium, and organic compounds, all of which must be removed before alumina is suitable for aluminum production. The process objectives are, therefore, separation of impurities and compound production in the present case. Bauxite is first dried to facilitate grinding, destroy organic matter, and oxidize the associated ferrous minerals to the ferric state. The temperature of drying is not allowed to exceed 150 °C, because at higher temperature a part of the combined water is expelled and the solubility is affected adversely. 

Bayer A process for making pure alumina hydrate from bauxite, used principally as a raw material for the manufacture of aluminum metal. The ore is digested with hot sodium hydroxide solution, yielding a solution of sodium aluminate. Insoluble impurities are separated off in the form of red mud and the solution is then nucleated with alumina hydrate from a previous batch, causing alumina trihydrate to precipitate ... 

F NMR of Fluorine-Doped -Alumina. The samples studied 115) were high surface area aluminum oxides doped with fluorine by addition of aqueous HF to alumina and subsequent dehydration. A suflScient number of paramagnetic impurities were present in the samples to give relaxation times of the order of 0.01 second. The BET surface areas of most of the samples examined were within 20% of 250 meterVgram. 

The production of aluminum actually involves several steps. Bauxite is the ore that contains aluminum oxide (Al Oj) used to produce aluminum. Impurities of iron, sulfur, silicon and other elements are removed from bauxite using the Bayer process to produce purified alumina. The Bayer process, patented in 1887 by Austrian Karl Josef Bayer (1847-1904), involves pulverizing bauxite and treating it with a hot sodium hydroxide solution to produce sodium alu-minate (NaA102). Sodium aluminate is then placed in a reactor in which temperature and pressure can be varied to precipitate out impurities. The sodium aluminate solution is then hydrolyzed to produce purified alumina ... 

Iron(III) oxide or alumina is refined from bauxite. Approximately 175 million tons of bauxite are mined annually worldwide, with virtually all of this processed into alumina. Alumina is a white crystalline substance that resembles salt. Approximately 90% of all alumina is used for making aluminum, with the remainder used for abrasives and ceramics. Alumina is produced from bauxite using the Bayer process patented in 1887 by Austrian Karl Josef Bayer (1847-1904). The Bayer process begins by grinding the bauxite and mixing it with sodium hydroxide in a digester. The sodium hydroxide dissolves aluminum oxide components to produce aluminum hydroxide compounds. For gibbsite, the reaction is Al(OH)3 + NaOH —> Al(OH)4 + Na+. Insoluble impurities such as silicates, titanium oxides, and iron oxides are removed from the solution while sodium hydroxide is recovered and recycled. Reaction conditions are then... 

Although aluminum was predicted by Lavoisier (France) as early as 1782, when he was investigating the properties of aluminum oxide (alumina), the metal was not isolated until 1825 by H.C. Oersted (Denmark). Oersted obtained an impure aluminum metal by heating potassium amalgam with anhydrous aluminum chloride, followed by... 

Aluminum is the most abundant metallic element in the Earth s crust and, following oxygen and silicon, the third most abundant element. However, the aluminum content in most minerals is low, and the commercial source of aluminum, bauxite, is a hydrated, impure oxide, Al203-xH20, where x can range up to 3. The bauxite ore, which is red from the iron oxides it contains, is processed to obtain alumina, Al2Q3. 

The high stability of the aluminate ion allows the production of concentrated solutions of aluminum with the virtual exclusion of the main metallic impurity, viz. iron as an oxide residue. The resultant impure aluminate solution is clarified and its temperature reduced when the reverse of the above reaction occurs with the formation of A1203,3H20 by a slow crystallization procedure. The high-purity alumina trihydrate product is calcined and then reduced electrochemically in a molten fluoride bath by the well-known Hall-Heroult process. The major problems in the Bayer process have their origin in the coordination chemistry of aluminum in alkaline solutions. The... 

It was noticed in some instances that alkali-metal impurities in alumina, or in the ceramic honeycombs, adversely influence the catalyst activity. For example, spodumene (lithium aluminum silicate) was found unsuitable for use as catalyst support, although it had good thermal properties. 

Clays are natural compounds of silica and alumina, containing major amounts of the oxides of sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and other alkali and alkaline earth metals. Iron and other transition metals are often found in natural clays, substituted for the aluminum cations. Oxides of virtually every metal are found as impurity deposits in clay minerals. 

Commercial alumina (ALO-Ex30 and ALO-GB1 from AJKA Alumina Co. Ltd., Hungary), aluminum-hydroxide and silica powders were investigated. Impurity levels of the powders were below 0.5%. In some tests, minor amount of NaNC>3 and Na-silicates were, however, blended into the silica aggregates. The sodium-silicates were used as binding agents of primary particles, while NaNC>3 was applied to release gas (O2 and N2) at temperatures higher than 720 °C. 

A further error in IL synthesis can originate from purification processes. In order to remove the often yellowish color of ionic liquids after synthesis they are commonly purified over silica or alumina powder (see above). Once we obtained a liquid where the supplier invested a lot of effort to deliver Endres-quality . [EMIMJTFSA was made with the best available educts in the add-base routine from diluted aqueous [EMIMJOH and H-TFSA. This approach exdudes metal and halide impurities. The supplier removed the slight yellowish color by purification over silica. For this purpose the supplier used quite a fresh silica, which had not been used in any purification process before. One has to bear in mind that the dominant impurities, even in hiqh quality silica, are aluminum species. Figure 11.26 shows the 1st, the 7th and the 15th cydes of this liquid on Au(l 11). Apparently... 

Alumina was not added to the reaction mixture although some aluminum may be present as a trace impurity in the reagents. 

Aluminum is the second most abundant metal on earth s crust. It is a common metal in tropical soils called laterites (red soils). It is extracted from bauxite that is a rich laterite by Bayer process that involves dissolution and separation of the oxide in caustic soda solution between 150 and 250°C and 20 atm of pressure. Though abundant and inexpensive, alumina based CBPCs are difficult to form because even in an acid solution the solubility of alumina is very low. This solubility, however, can be enhanced by a mUd thermal treatment and suitable CBPCs can be formed. Alumina is available commercially as calcined alumina called corundum, or as its hydrated forms such as aluminum hydroxide (Al(OH)3), as bohmite, (A1203-3H20), gibbsite (AI2O3 H2O) or in impure forms as in kaolin clay. These mineral forms and their use in ceramic formation are discussed in Chapter 11. 

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