Inorganic Chemicals Industry ›› 2025, Vol. 57 ›› Issue (4): 22-30.doi: 10.19964/j.issn.1006-4990.2024-0303

• Research & Development • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Regular study on effect of impurity ions in brine on morphology of magnesium sulfate crystallized by halogenation-cold precipitation

YANG Minhang1(), XU Kai1, CHENG Huaigang1,2(), CHENG Wenting1,3, SONG Huiping1,3   

  1. 1. Institute of Resources and Environmental Eneineering,Engineering Research Center of Resource Efficiency Enhancing and Carbon Emission Reduction in Yellow River Basin,Ministry of Education of the People′s Republic of China,Taiyuan 030032,China
    2. Qinghai university school of chemical engineering,Xining 810016,China
    3. Shanxi yellow river laboratory,Taiyuan 030032,China
  • Received:2024-05-29 Online:2025-04-10 Published:2025-04-21
  • Contact: CHENG Huaigang E-mail:18346185592@163.com;chenghg@sxu.edu.cn

Abstract:

Cold precipitation crystallization is one of the common methods to produce crystalline magnesium sulfate,but the obtained magnesium sulfate crystals often have irregular morphology and rough surface,which limits the application of magnesium sulfate crystals in the field of coatings and composites.In this paper,the effect of common ions Li+、K+、Ca2+ in raw brine on the micro-morphology of crystallized magnesium sulfate was studied to better meet the needs of subsequent applications.According to the process of extracting high-purity magnesium sulfate hydrate by cold precipitation method,the mesostable solution and crystalline products were characterized in the static crystallization of MgSO4-NaCl co-saturated solution.The results showed that NaCl was adhered to the crystalline surface during the cooling process affecting the crystal morphology.The impurity ions would increase the ratio of solvent-sharing ion pairs(Mg2+-H2O-SO42-),which was more favorable for the growth and precipitation of MgSO4·6H2O.While the composition of the cooling crystallization products was not changed,the impurity ions would contribute to the reduction of Na content on the crystal surface and optimize the crystal morphology.When the content of K2SO4 was 300 mmol/L,the Na content of the products could be reduced from 0.57% to 0.03%,and a regular crystalline product was obtained.It was hypothesized that the impurity ions would compete with Na+ for the crystallization sites located on the crystal surface,preventing the nucleation of the sodium salt,and molecular dynamics simulations were used to verify the above speculation.Therefore,the presence of a small amount of impurity ions in solution was conducive to to obtain magnesium sulfate crystals with smooth surface and stable properties.

Key words: magnesium sulfate, cold precipitation crystallization, microstructure, impurity ion

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