Vaporization Studies from Slag Surfaces Using a Thin Film Technique

The investigations of vanadium vaporization from CaO-SiO₂-FeO-V₂O₅ thin film slags were conducted using the single hot thermocouple technique (SHTT) with air as the oxidizing atmosphere. The slag samples were analyzed after the experiments by SEM/EDX. The vanadium content was found to decrease as a function of time. The loss of vanadium from the slag film after 30 minutes of oxidation was approximately 18 pct and after 50 minutes, it was nearly 56 pct. The possible mechanism of vanadium loss would be the surface oxidation of vanadium oxide in the slag, VO _x to V⁵⁺, followed by surface evaporation of V₂O₅, which has a high vapor pressure at the experimental temperature.