Author(s)

Garcia Rosales Genoveva, Ordónez Regil Enrique, Romero Guzmán Elizabeth Teresita, Ordónez Regil Eduardo

Departamento de Química,Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares, MEXICO Carretera México-Toluca km. 36.5, Apartado Postal 18-1027,11801 México D. F., México..

Mexican zirconium sand has been envisaged like a source of zirconium compounds. The main product obtained is zircon (ZrSiO₄), which has a high raw material value. During a mineralogical purification sand process with hydrofluoric acid, a liquor was obtained as the by product. This liquor was dripped over hot phosphoric acid to obtain zirconium hydrogen phosphate Zr(HPO₄)₂·H₂O (α-ZP) which has taken considerably attention due to its wide application. Both products zircon and α-ZP were analyzed as for structure and purity using analytic techniques. X-Ray diffraction revealed that zircon and α-ZP were polycrystalline materials. Scanning Electron Microscopy indicated that α-ZP formed particles and aggregates in different shapes and size distributions depending on the condensing way and the agitation speed. Furthermore, thermogravimetric analysis demonstrated that the α-ZP phases present different hydrated levels. FTIR spectra were obtained to identify the corresponding PO stretching vibration from the α-ZP and the specific surface areas were calculated by BET method.

Zirconium sand; Zirconium phosphates; α-ZP surface morphology; α-ZP synthesis.

G. Genoveva, O. Enrique, R. Teresita and O. Eduardo, "The Influence of Agitation Speed on the Morphology and Size Particle Synthesis of Zr(HPO₄)₂·H₂O from Mexican Sand," Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, Vol. 6 No. 1, 2007, pp. 39-51. doi: 10.4236/jmmce.2007.61004.