Regular Article

Effects and mechanism of MgO on carbothermal reduction of Fe₂TiO₄

¹ University of Science and Technology Beijing, State Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallurgy, 100083 Beijing, PR China
² Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, School of Metallurgical Engineering, 710055 Xi’an, PR China

^* e-mail: xaxxd@xauat.edu.cn

Received: 7 May 2021
Accepted: 8 July 2021

Abstract

The effects of MgO on carbothermal reduction of Fe₂TiO₄ had been researched including the thermodynamic calculation in this paper. And, based on XRD and SEM-EDS, the effect mechanism of MgO on the direct reduction of Fe₂TiO₄ had been deeply dissected, systematically. The results showed that magnesium titanium phases including MgTi₂O₅, MgTiO₃ and Mg₂TiO₄ were formatted after MgO added into Fe₂TiO₄, which was main reason to affect the reduction of Fe₂TiO₄. When the MgO content in Fe₂TiO₄ did not exceed 2%, there was the promoting effect on the reduction of Fe₂TiO₄. With the increase of MgO content from 2% to 8%, the magnesium titanium phases transformed from MgTi₂O₅, and through MgTiO₃ to Mg₂TiO₄. The inhibition function appeared, and can be weaken in the high reduction temperature. When reduction temperature reaches to 1300 °C, the metallization rate of F-M-8 (the reduction sample of 8% MgO) can reach 80.62% from 56.43% at 1200 °C. However, the aggregation degree of iron particles became worse when MgO was added to the sample.