Abstract:
As a part of the fundamental study related to the reduction smelting of spent lithium-ion batteries and ocean polymetallic nodules based on MnO–SiO
2 slags, this work investigated the activity coefficient of NiO in SiO
2-saturated MnO–SiO
2 slag and Al
2O
3-saturated MnO–SiO
2–Al
2O
3 slag at 1623 K with controlled oxygen partial pressure levels of 10
−7, 10
−6, and 10
−5 Pa. Results showed that the solubility of nickel oxide in the slags increased with increasing oxygen partial pressure. The nickel in the MnO–SiO
2 slag and MnO–SiO
2–Al
2O
3 slag existed as NiO under experimental conditions. The addition of Al
2O
3 in the MnO–SiO
2 slag decreased the dissolution of nickel in the slag and increased the activity coefficient of NiO. Furthermore, the activity coefficient of NiO (
γNiO), which is solid NiO, in the SiO
2 saturated MnO–SiO
2 slag and Al
2O
3 saturated MnO–SiO
2–Al
2O
3 slag at 1623 K can be respectively calculated as
γNiO = 8.58
w(NiO) + 3.18 and
γNiO = 11.06
w(NiO) + 4.07, respectively, where
w(NiO) is the NiO mass fraction in the slag.