Precipitation and growth behaviour of metatitanic acid particles from titanium sulfate solution

- The precipitation and growth process of metatitanic acid particles were investigated.
- It was found that precipitation of products can be described by the Avrami equation.
- Experiential expressions of average sizes of the products were obtained.

The precipitation and growth behaviour of metatitanic acid particles from titanium sulfate solution were investigated. The metatitanic acid particles were characterised by a laser particle size distribution instrument and a field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM). Precipitation processes of metatitanic acid from titanium sulfate solution were analysed. Six-factor five-level orthogonal experiments were performed to assess the influence of each factor on metatitanic acid particle size with the variance analysis results indicating that the most effective factor was hydrolysis temperature. The precipitation process of metatitanic acid particles under isothermal conditions can be described by the Avrami equation with the particles easily aggregating during the preparation process. Experiential expressions for the average metatitanic acid particle size were obtained.

Secondary electron microscopic morphology of metatitanic acid particles.(Titanium sulfate concentration: 70 g/L, pH: 5, hydrolysis temperature: 363 K, stirring rate : 600 rad/min, hydrolysis time: 1.5 h)126