Study on the effect of an ultrasound assisted reaction on the crystallization properties of recovered cryolite

Abstract

During the treatment of spent cathode carbon from electrolytic aluminum, a large amount of fluoride containing wastewater is generated. By adding different sodium source and aluminum source reagents, under the conditions of different addition order, pH, temperature and time, the effects of conventional static reaction, stirring reaction and ultrasonic assisted reaction on the crystallization properties of recovered cryolite were investigated. The results showed that under the optimum reaction conditions (sodium source: NaCl, aluminum source: AlCl₃, the molar ratio of AlCl₃ to NaCl is 1 : 3, addition order: first addition of AlCl₃ and then NaCl, pH is 8.57, time is 40 min, temperature at room temperature), the removal efficiency of fluoride ions was the highest when ultrasound assisted treatment was used. The cryolite products with ultrasound assisted crystallization and without ultrasound assisted crystallization were characterized using SEM and TEM. The results showed that the crystal particles obtained by ultrasound assisted crystallization were relatively concentrated, and the morphology was regular and the surface was smooth. Design Expert orthogonal software was used to design the response surface test, it was found that ultrasound time has the most significant impact on the content of recovered cryolite among single factors, and the interaction between ultrasound frequency and ultrasound power, ultrasound power and ultrasound time was highly significant among multiple factors.