Novel decomposition method for zircon

Zircon is one of the most table chemical compound due to the strong bond between zirconia and silica in its molecule. Therefore, any extraction for zirconium metal or other useful zirconium compounds must start with the breakdown of such bond. The breakdown of zircon using the alkali fusion method is a well-known techniques and can be more favorable than using traditional chlorination breakdown if less drastic reaction conditions have been obtained. For such reason, the presence work study the fusion of zircon with equimolar ratio of KOH and NaOH as an alternative for using NaOH and Na2CO3. The influence of varying experimental conditions on the zircon fusion has been studied. These variables included the amount of alkali used, the temperature of the reaction, and the reaction duration. Using 20% excess of alkali mixture at 550 degrees C with only 60 min reaction time was favorable to get 96% zircon decomposition. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.