Hydrometallurgy To Analyze A Chromite Sample

2330 Words10 Pages
Hydrometallurgy to Analyze a Chromite Sample • Purpose To determine whether or not a given unknown metal sample is chromium, and to find out: “Is the ore’s chemical content composed of the mineral chromite?” by using hydrometallurgy (a field of extractive metallurgy involving the use of aqueas chemistry for the recovery of metals from ores, concetrates, and recycled or recovered materials). • Introduction Chromite is a widely distributed black to brownish-black colored iron chromium oxide metal with a metallic to sub-metallic luster. Chromite is one of the first minerals to crystallize in ultra-mafic magma, and because of this, it is found in concentrated ore bodies. The reason why chromite is found in concentrated ore bodies is because of the density of the ore causes it to fall to the bottom. Naturally occurring chromite is composed of small amounts of titanium, zinc, cobalt, nickel, and manganese. Due to this, chromite is responsible for a multitude of industrial contributions to society. When chromium is extracted from chromite, it produces a metal alloy known as stainless steel. Since chromite has high heat stability, it is often used as a refractory material. Also, the resistance to high temperatures and pressures allow it to go through the metamorphic processes unscathed. Experiment 11 concepts are heavily used in this experiment. The concept of using the MeasureNet Spectrophotometers, analyzing resulting graphs to compare and contrast differing solutions of λ max (or lambda max), therefore comparing and contrasting differing solution wavelengths. Through comparing an “unknown solution” to the known solutions wavelengths, students are able to determine in this particular experiment if chromite is present in the unknown given metal ore sample. If the wavelengths of the unknown metal ore solution share a lambda max or maximum wavelength to the lambda
Open Document