Thermodynamic Investigation of Carbothermic Reduction of Antimony Sulfide from ZnO-Sb۲S۳ Mixture

Thermodynamic feasibility of simultaneous extraction of zinc and antimony from the mixture of zinc oxide, antimony sulfide and carbon has been investigated in this research. Zinc oxide in the vicinity of carbon can react with Sb۲S۳ and produce ZnS and CO. This solution inhibits sulfur in solid phase and prevents the release of toxic SO۲ gas. Investigations have been carried out in the temperature range of ۷۰۰-۱۴۰۰ at ۱ atm pressure and in the presence of argon gas. Thermodynamic calculations were done by FactSage ۶.۱ software, Equilib package. Base on thermodynamic simulation, at temperatures of ۷۰۰-۹۰۰ , ۱۰۰% antimony can be recovered in molten phase. At higher temperatures, molten antimony reacts with zinc sulfide and antimony sulfide is reproduced. The loss of antimony at a temperature higher than ۱۰۰۰ is greatly increased and at a temperature of ۱۳۰۰ all the antimony is re-sulfided. We conclude that to achieve maximum efficiency, the process of recovering antimony from stibnite should be done at temperatures lower than ۱۰۰۰ .

کلیدواژه ها:

Antimony sulfide ، Zinc oxide ، carbothermic reduction ، Thermodynamic feasibility ، Recovery