Chlorination of antimony and its volatilization treatment of waste antimony-uranium composite oxide catalyst
Abstract For the waste antimony-uranium composite oxide catalyst, the chlorination of antimony and its volatilization treatment were proposed, and evaluated using hydrogen chloride gas at 873–1173 K. During the treatment, the weight loss of the composite oxide sample, which resulted from the volatilization of antimony, was confirmed. An X-ray diffraction analysis showed that uranium oxide, U3O8, was formed during the reaction. After the treatment at 1173 K for 1 h, almost all the uranium contained in the waste catalyst was dissolved by a 3 M nitric acid solution at 353 K within 10 min, although that of the non-treated catalyst was less than 0.1%. It was found that the chlorination and volatilization treatment was effective to separate antimony from the composite oxide catalyst and change uranium into its removable form.