Ultrasonic depolymerization of Li2O-Na2O-SiO2 type silicate melt

Under the application of ultrasound, the organic polymers can be degraded for the reason of breakage of C-C or C-N bond induced by the cavitation effect, similar to organic polymers, the silicate melts are also one typical polymer connected with Si-O bonds. To verify the prediction of the depolymerization of silicate melt, the ultrasound was applied to one kind of silicate melt for the first time via a special designed experimental system. Results showed that, under the applying of the ultrasound, the Si-O (bridged O) bonds in the structure units of the silicate melt can be broken, which decreases the polymerization degree and the viscosity. Under the higher power of applied ultrasound, the polymerization degree and viscosity of the silicate melt further decrease. Unlike some organic polymers, once stopping applying ultrasound, the broken lower polymerized units reconnect to form higher polymerized units gradually, the degree of the polymerization and the viscosity reverse to its nature state of the silicate melts. According to these results, the potential applications in the steel continuous casting process and electrolytic aluminum process are predicted.