China Nonferrous Metallurgy

At present， the main production method of metal europium is vacuum reduction-distillation method， and the recovery rate can reach 95%. However， there are still some problems， such as long reduction period， high energy consumption， unstable preparation process and inability to produce continuously. In recent years， Professor Zhang Ting'an team proposed the 'relative vacuum' smelting technology， and achieved good results in the field of magnesium smelting. In this paper， the relative vacuum smelting technology is applied to the production of metal europium by lanthanum thermal reduction. The relative vacuum reduction experiment is carried out on the prefabricated pellets made of lanthanum powder and europium oxide by a medium frequency induction furnace， in order to explore the optimal experimental conditions. The results demonstrate that the relative vacuum technology can be applied to the preparation of europium metal by lanthanum thermal reduction. The reduction rate of europium oxide can be improved by appropriately increasing the carrier gas flow rate， the pressure of the sample and the excess coefficient of the reducing agent. The optimum experimental conditions are as follows： argon flow rate v=0. 2 m3 /h， reduction temperature T=1 100℃， reduction time t=1. 5 h， pelleting pressure P=20 MPa， and excess ratio of reducing agent M=1. 1. This technology breaks the limitation of vacuum conditions to achieve continuous production， and the inert gas can be recycled， but there are still problems of low reduction rate and poor product purity. Under the optimal conditions， the reduction rate of europium oxide is only 87. 29%， and the purity of metal europium product is only 97. 88%. Subsequent research will continue to optimize the process and provide a more solid technology basis for the industrial continuous production of metal europium. .