Reaction mechanism of roasting Zn2SiO4 using NaOH

The reaction kinetics of roasting zinc silicate using NaOH was investigated. The orthogonal test was employed to optimize the reaction conditions and the optimized reaction conditions were as follows: molar ratio of NaOH to Zn₂SiO₄ of 16:1, reaction temperature of 550 °C, and reaction time of 2.5 h. In order to ascertain the phases transformation and reaction processes of zinc oxide and silica, the XRD phase analysis was used to analyze the phases of these specimens roasted at different temperatures. The final phases of the specimen roasted at 600 °C were Na₂ZnO₂, Na₄SiO₄, Na₂ZnSiO₄ and NaOH. The reaction kinetic equation of roasting was determined by the shrinking unreacted core model. Aiming to investigate the reaction mechanism, two control models of reaction rate were applied: chemical reaction at the particle surface and diffusion through the product layer. The results indicated that the diffusion through the product layer model described the reaction process well. The apparent activation energy of the roasting was 19.77 kJ/mol.