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Reduction of Ilmenite with Charcoal

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Kristy M. Blyth , Mark I. Ogden , David N. Phillips , David Pritchard and Wilhelm van Bronswijk

School of Applied Chemistry, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia 6845, Australia

J. Chem. Educ., 2005, 82 (3), p 456

DOI: 10.1021/ed082p456

Publication Date (Web): March 1, 2005

Section:

History, Education, and Documentation

Abstract

This laboratory exercise introduces students to a heterogeneous reaction and the use of X-ray diffraction to identify mineral phases and to propose reaction schemes. The exercise involves the reduction of ilmenite with charcoal and the efficiency of the reduction process is monitored using wet-chemical methods. It is an original exercise that is carried out as part of a third-year inorganic chemistry unit in the three-year undergraduate applied chemistry degree course at Curtin University of Technology. The reduction process is simulated by reaction of ilmenite and charcoal in a tube furnace. Samples of the ilmenite and charcoal are intimately mixed, placed in a porcelain boat, and reduced under nitrogen in a tube furnace. All students use the same ilmenite sample, but each student is assigned a particular time and temperature of reduction as the variables that lead to a range of data from the class. In the wet-chemical analysis for total and metallic iron, the students are required to call on experience gained in a previous analytical chemistry unit in the course. X-ray diffractograms, d spacings, and relative intensities of selected materials are provided so that students may identify the phases present at various stages of the process.