Regular Article

Preparation of industrial grade MoO₂ by the reaction between industrial grade MoO₃ and activated carbon

¹ State Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, PR China
² The Shanghai Key Laboratory of Advanced High-Temperature Materials and Precision Forming, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, PR China

^* e-mail: ghzhang_ustb@163.com

Received: 28 September 2017
Accepted: 18 December 2017

Abstract

In this study, the reaction between industrial grade molybdenum trioxide powders and activated carbon has been investigated in order to produce industrial grade molybdenum dioxide (MoO₂). Effects of activation carbon addition and reaction temperature on the product compositions are both illustrated. Increasing the reaction temperature can significantly improve the reaction rate. It is difficult for them to react completely when the temperature is lower than 550 °C. However, industrial grade MoO₂ powders can be obtained when the temperature is up to 650 °C. It is also found that there is no intermediate product Mo₄O₁₁ formed during the reaction process of MoO₃ by activated carbon, which is different from the case of hydrogen reduction of MoO₃ to MoO₂. The crystalline size of the obtained MoO₂ becomes very small relative to that of the raw material MoO₃.