Bayer Alumina to produce Gallium Metal** resin Gallium metal is widely used in semiconductors, solar cells, alloys, chemicals, medicine, light energy conversion and other fields, but in nature, the average crustal abundance of gallium is only 19 ppm, although it is higher than some common metals, such as lead (10 ppm) or tin (2 ppm), however, gallium lacks independent deposits, mainly dispersed and associated in some copper ores, lead-zinc ores, bauxite, Iron ore and coal gangue (as associated minerals) or high-alumina fly ash, so it is also called associated gallium, and the cost of extracting gallium alone is higher and more difficult. At present, 90% of primary gallium is mainly from Bayer sodium aluminate solution in bauxite, and the remaining 10% is mainly from the waste gas and residue in the zinc-lead production process and fly ash.
Due to the low gallium content in most ores, the cost of direct extraction is much higher than that of other minerals, which is mainly separated and extracted as a by-product in the processing of other minerals, and needs to be enriched first and then **.
First of all, Bayer mother liquor through pressure filtration, to obtain gallium-containing solution, at this time the content of gallium in the solution is less, so a cycle process is required, after the resin adsorption is saturated, the load resin is desorbed, gallium is desorbed through acid desorption to obtain gallium solution, and gallium-rich solution is obtained through neutralization, precipitation, dissolution and other processes, due to the presence of impurities in the electrolysis process has a great impact on the purity of gallium, generally by adding hydrogen peroxide, Quicklime and sodium sulfide are purified to obtain a pure solution by multi-step purification of gallium-rich solution, and finally crude gallium metal is obtained by electrolysis.
Compared with other gallium extraction methods, the resin adsorption method is considered to be the most advantageous method for extracting gallium due to its low pollution, short process flow, high selectivity, and no need to add any reagent to the sodium aluminate solution.
HPG319 is a chelating resin that can adsorb gallium from a gallium-containing solution to separate gallium from other impurities, and then resolve gallium from the resin into the solution to obtain gallium metal by electrolysis.