Abstract
Pingluo underground brine, located in the west of China, is a high-grade deposit of lithium, potassium, rubidium, and borates. To study the ways of multipurpose utilization of this resource, the phase equilibrium of the system Li+, Rb+, Mg2+//borate-H2O was investigated at 348 K by an isothermal dissolution method. The solubilities of the components and physicochemical properties of equilibrated solutions, such as density and refractive index were determined. The stable phase diagram, the water content diagram and the physicochemical properties vs. composition diagrams were constructed according to the experimental data. The stable phase diagram consists of one invariant point, three isothermal dissolution curves and three crystallization fields corresponding to single salts MgB4O5(OH)4 · 7H2O, RbB5O6(OH)4 · 2H2O, and Li2B4O7 · 3H2O. The Li2B4O7 · 3H2O salt has the smallest crystallization region, whereas RbB5O6(OH)4 · 2H2O occupies the largest part, so rubidium pentaborate can be more easily separated from solution than other coexisting salts of this system at 348 K.
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