Separating Technology of Pure Zirconia from Zircon-Sand by the Ar-H<sub>2</sub> Arc Plasma Fusion and the Microwave Leaching

Abstract

Zirconia (ZrO2) has excellent properties such as high toughness, high strength, thermal stability and high corrosion resistance. Thus, recent zirconia has been spotlighted as a dental material. Most of pure zirconia has been separated from zircon sand (ZrSiO4) by wet refining process which is very complex and not an environmental. The arc plasma fusion method has the advantages as a sustainable process that can easily and quickly get very good fine and high pure powders from the original materials compared with traditional wet method. In this study, zircon sand is separated into zirconia and silica by using the Ar-H2(hydrogen) arc plasma refining. And then silica is removed from it by the microwave leaching method to produce a high pure zirconia. Argon gas, hydrogen gas, copper anode and tungsten cathode are used for the plasma arc generation. To facilitate zirconia and silica separation, carbon of 1-3molar ratios are added with zircon sand. Plasma melting were sequentially conducted two processes. After a reduction process using Ar gas only, it was refined using a mixed gas of Ar-H2. After melting and water cooling in chamber, the solid phases composed with zirconia and silica were obtained at 240 ̊C, and 20% sulfuric acid solution was used as the leaching materials to obtain a high purity zirconia (more than 99%).