Effect of Free Ammonia on Ammonium Paratungstate Production

Ammonium paratungstate (APT) is an important intermediate product of the production of tungsten metal powder. To ensure the quality of tungsten powder, the average particle size, particle size distribution and crystal morphology should also meet certain requirements while the APT chemical purity does. With the rapid development of modern science and technology, there’re more and more demands for different grain size and shape of tungsten powder production, and thus the requirements of raw material APT are also getting higher and higher.
For APT crystallization conditions, the scholars have carried out extensive exploration and discussion, but the overall reports are rare, and the results are not entirely consistent. In order to investigate the basic conditions of APT production, for the preparation of APT crystallization problems, this article attempts to make some analysis and discussion on theory and the process practice based on a number of experimental studies made recently and some views are put forward by reference.
 
When concentration of free nitrogen in initial ammonium tungstate solution increased from 17g / L to 51g / L, the bulk density of the resulting APT decreased from 2.22g / cm3 to 2.02g / cm3. Since the content of free nitrogen is high, PH decreases slowly during evaporation and crystallization. The solution concentration increased with time, when the solution reaches the paratungstate PH range, the oversaturation of solution increases, so the resulting APT particle size is relatively reduced. If continuously add a amount of free ammonia to the solution during the crystallization process, PH of the solution can be maintained within a certain range, so that the oversaturation of solution is controlled, which is conducive to particle growth.

 

 

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