Direct transformation of tungsten trioxide monohydrate into ammonium paratungstate tetrahydrate in ammonium salt solutions

Abstract

The present researches and developments for ammonium paratungstate tetrahydrate production always suffer from at least one of the following problems: long production process, high-energy consumption, low tungsten crystallization ratio and serious environmental pollutions. The objective of this work is to develop a sustainable technology to directly produce ammonium paratungstate tetrahydrate. The results show that the starting material, tungsten trioxide monohydrate, can stoichiometrically react with ammonium bicarbonate or ammonium carbonate by direct transformation reaction in an airtight container under different experimental conditions. The dense-surface ammonium paratungstate tetrahydrate with the average particle size of 61.7 µm was prepared by adding solid tungsten trioxide monohydrate and 80×10⁻⁶ g/L PEG2000 into the ammonium bicarbonate solution with the liquid-to-solid mass ratio of 2 at 80 °C for 3 h. The chemical purity of the transformed ammonium paratungstate tetrahydrate meets the standards of APT·4H₂O-0 grade.

Keywords

direct transformation / tungsten trioxide monohydrate / ammonium paratungstate / ammonium bicarbonate

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