Hydrothermal precipitation of hematite from the model solution of zinc hydrometallurgical extraction

Abstract The effect of temperature and silicon concentration on iron precipitation and morphology of hematite particles was discussed. The results showed that increase of initial silicon centration will lead to the decrease of iron removal efficiency, and the Fe content decreases and S content increases in hematite. Increasing temperature is beneficial to increase iron removal rate and Fe content in hematite, but increasing temperature can not decrease silicon content in hematite. The content of Si in precipitate is proportional to the concentration of silicon in solution. Silicon is adsorbed on the surface of hematite in the form of silicic acid. Hematite particle was agglomerated microsphere. Increasing concentration of silicon will increase the disorder degree of hematite crystallization. With the increase of silicon concentration, the agglomeration of hematite particle was more obvious, and the average particle size of hematite particles increased. At 175 °C, the morphology of iron precipitation particles are composed of flake particles and rhomboid massive particles, but when the temperature rises to 195 °C, the agglomeration phenomenon is obvious, small flake particles agglomerate into microspherical aggregates.