Design and application of a high-temperature microfurnace for an in situ X-ray diffraction study of phase transformation

摘要

Thermal treatment of mineral ores such as ilmenite can initiate phasetransformations that could affect their activation or deactivation, subsequentlyinfluencing their ability to dissolve in a leaching agent. Most laboratory-basedX-ray diffraction (XRD) studies were carried out ex situ in which realisticdiffraction patterns could not be obtained simultaneously with occurringreactions and were time-consuming. The availability of synchrotron-radiation-based XRD not only allows in situ analysis, but significantly shortens the datarecording time. The present study details the design of a robust high-temperature microfurnace which allows thermal processing of mineral oresamples and the simultaneous collection of high-resolution synchrotron XRDdata. In addition, the application of the manufactured microfurnace for in situstudy of phase transformations of ilmenite ore under reducing conditions isdemonstrated.