Effects and mechanism of MgO on carbothermal reduction of Fe2TiO4

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.