Mechanochemistry in Mineral Processing and Waste Resource Recovery

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2023) | Viewed by 2756

Special Issue Editors

School of Mining Engineering, University of Science and Technology Liaoning, Anshan 114051, China
Interests: mechanochemistry; mineral materials; minerals processing; waste utilization; secondary resources recovery; solid state chemistry
South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Guangzhou 510535, China
Interests: mechanochemistry; solid waste resource utilization; mineral materials; prevention and control of heavy metal pollution; mine ecological restoration; migration and transformation of heavy metals
Ganjiang Innovation Academy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ganzhou 341000, China
Interests: mechanochemical processes; mineral environmental materials; nitrogen and phosphorus removal and recovery; heavy metals; arsenic pollution control; electrochemistry; membrane separation
School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Interests: mechanochemistry; minerals processing; powder technology; materials processing; nanomaterials; metallurgical engineering; waste management; environmental engineering

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Mechanochemistry is a branch of science concerned with chemical and physico-chemical changes in solids due to the influence of mechanical forces. This force may break down crystals, thus exposing fresh, active surfaces and enhance the mass transfer required for reaction partners in the solid state to make the contact required for initiating a chemical reaction.

Although mechanochemical effects have been utilized since the prehistoric era, when primitive man used friction to make fire, it is still frequently used in many fields of human activity. The mechanical activation of minerals makes it possible to reduce their decomposition temperature or causes such a degree of disordering that the thermal activation may be omitted entirely. In this process, the complex influence of surface and bulk properties occurs. The mineral activation may increase the chemical reactivity of the processed material and has been extensively utilized in extractive metallurgy, synthesis of mineral composite materials, crystal engineering, and waste treatment.

The waste disposal in the world is a big concern and changing to be ever increasingly serious with the industry development and the population growth. Over the last few decades, chemists developed different chemical methods to achieve waste resources recovery. In recent years, it has been demonstrated that mechanochemistry has many advantages (simplified process; ecological safety; making a product in the metastable state., etc.) over other conventional chemical methods in solid and liquid-waste disposal, such as separation and  purification of multi-metal sewage, fly-ash modification, rubber and plastic recycling., etc.

This Special Issue is organized into three sections:

Section 1—Mechanochemical synthesis of mineral materials: studies of mechanochemical fabrication mechanism and application evaluation of various mineral materials.

Section 2—Mechanochemical activation of natural minerals: studies of the changes in the chemical and physico-chemical properties of natural minerals by mechanochemical activation, as well as related applications.

Section 3—Mechanochemical recovery of waste resources: studies of the separation, concentration, purification and recovery of secondary resources from liquid or solid wastes by the mechanochemical method, including, but not limited to, tailings, organic/inorganic sewage, mine slag, metallurgical waste, etc.

This Special Issue mainly focuses on the new mechanism, new materials, and new applications developed in the mechanochemistry upon minerals processing and waste resources recovery and aims to contribute to the minerals, environment, and resources science.

Dr. Zhao Li
Dr. Huimin Hu
Dr. Xuewei Li
Prof. Dr. Qiwu Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • mechanochemistry minerals processing
  • solid-state synthesis
  • mechanical activation
  • waste treatment
  • resources recovery
  • resources and environmental engineering

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 4291 KiB  
Article
Mechanochemical Synthesis of Dolomite-Related Carbonates—Insight into the Effects of Various Parameters
by Ting Jiang, Chao Wang, Min Chen, Huimin Hu, Junwei Huang, Xiaofang Chen and Qiwu Zhang
Minerals 2023, 13(11), 1359; https://doi.org/10.3390/min13111359 - 25 Oct 2023
Viewed by 739
Abstract
The low-temperature formation of dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) is undoubtedly a long and interesting geological problem, which has troubled many researchers for centuries to explore the formation of dolomite. Recently, efforts have been made by synthesizing dolomite analogues such as norsethite [...] Read more.
The low-temperature formation of dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) is undoubtedly a long and interesting geological problem, which has troubled many researchers for centuries to explore the formation of dolomite. Recently, efforts have been made by synthesizing dolomite analogues such as norsethite (BaMg(CO3)2), PbMg(CO3)2, with Ba and Pb to replace Ca and investigating their reaction pathways. In this study, we reported our efforts to synthesize dolomite-related complex carbonates by using the mechanical ball milling method as a new approach to control the solid–water ratio compared to the commonly used solution method. Two analogues of norsethite and PbMg(CO3)2 have been simply obtained even at stoichiometric molar ratio of Ba/Mg = 1:1 and Pb/Mg = 1:1 with various parameters examined; and product properties including morphology and phase compositions were investigated by a range of techniques, including XRD, SEM-EDS, and FTIR. Finally, we attempted to synthesize dolomite and compared the differences from the synthesis of analogues. In conclusion, we have synthesized norsethite and PbMg(CO3)2 in one step by the ball milling method, which greatly reduces the reaction time compared with the conventional solution method and may provide other choices for the formation of dolomite. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanochemistry in Mineral Processing and Waste Resource Recovery)
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19 pages, 6490 KiB  
Article
Lithium Extraction and Zeolite Synthesis via Mechanochemical Treatment of the Silicate Minerals Lepidolite, Spodumene, and Petalite
by Tobias Necke, Johannes Stein, Hans-Joachim Kleebe and Benjamin Balke-Grünewald
Minerals 2023, 13(8), 1030; https://doi.org/10.3390/min13081030 - 31 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1470
Abstract
Lithium is in high demand: this is driven by current trends in e-mobility and results in increased global production and record prices for lithium ores and compounds. Pegmatite ores, in addition to brines, remain of particular interest because of their higher lithium content [...] Read more.
Lithium is in high demand: this is driven by current trends in e-mobility and results in increased global production and record prices for lithium ores and compounds. Pegmatite ores, in addition to brines, remain of particular interest because of their higher lithium content and lower geopolitical risks. In this work, we investigated lithium extraction via the mechanochemical treatment of the three most common lithium minerals: lepidolite, spodumene, and petalite. Indeed, we determine that the petalite crystal structure was much more suitable due to its less dense packing and the formation of cleavage planes along lithium sites, resulting in substantial lithium extraction of 84.9% and almost complete conversion to hydrosodalite after 120 min of ball milling in alkaline media. Further processing of the leach liquor includes desilication, the precipitation of lithium phosphate, and the conversion and crystallization of pure LiOH·H2O. Special attention was paid to a holistic approach entailing the generation of by-products, each of which has a specific intended application. The leaching residues were investigated by powder X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, N2 adsorption/desorption, and scanning electron microscopy. Moreover, hydrosodalite was found to have a high potential as an adsorbent for heavy metal ions which were studied separately using aqueous solutions containing Cu2+, Ni2+, Pb2+, and Zn2+. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanochemistry in Mineral Processing and Waste Resource Recovery)
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