With global demand for high performance materials continues to rise, the significance of beryllium as a critical material will become increasingly pronounced, making the stability of its resource supply a pressing concern. How to efficiently develop low-grade beryllium ore has become a key challenge for beryllium resource management. This study proposes an alkaline melting enhancement process to facilitate the efficient leaching of beryllium from low-grade beryllium ore. Experimental results demonstrate that the direct sulfuric acid curing leaching of beryl yields suboptimal results, with a maximum leaching efficiency of 33.5 %. At 1500 °C, Al 2 Be 3 Si 6 O 18 decomposes into Be 2 SiO 4 , Al 2 BeO 4 , and SiO 2 , resulting in a leaching efficiency increase to 61.67 %. Inadequate CaO addition during the alkaline melting process results in the formation of SiO 2 -Al 2 O 3 -CaO, SiO 2 , and partial BeO, while the remaining Be is included in the glass phase. The optimal conditions for the alkaline melting of beryl are 1300 °C for 2 h with a 35 % CaO addition. Under these conditions, the leaching efficiency of Be can reach 97.02 %. This method enables the efficient extraction of Be from low-grade beryllium ore, providing both theoretical support and technical guidance for the sustainable development and efficient utilization of beryllium resources.
Boron (B) is one of the most powerful tracers of fluid-mediated processes. However, challenges still exist for B analysis of silicate materials with the main difficulty in sample dissolution. Cai et al. (2021) reported a novel alkaline fusion method for boron isotope analysis using solid sodium peroxide and glassy carbon crucibles. Here we report a modified and improved version of this method using hydrated sodium peroxide and silver crucibles, which permits a lower flux-to-sample mass ratio (FSMR) (3 : 1), relatively low fusion temperature of 710 °C, and the use of cheaper silver crucibles. This modified method achieves complete sample dissolution while being safer and more efficient as it removes the need for grinding fresh sodium peroxide solid into powder. The B blank of the hydrated sodium peroxide solution can be determined more accurately and further reduced through chromatography. In addition to the improvements in the alkaline fusion procedure, we also propose a new procedure to dissolve the fusion cake, which greatly reduces reagent usage and minimizes the procedural blank as a result. Using these improved techniques, we analyzed B concentrations and B isotope compositions of eight silicate international standards. The results are consistent with published data within analytical uncertainties. Combined with the one-step chromatography using the Amberlite® IRA-743 B-specific resin to purify B and the Neptune plus® MC-ICP-MS for isotopic analysis, this method generates a batch of B concentration and isotope data within 48 hours with minimal need to handle hazardous chemicals. This safe and efficient method will greatly speed up research using B isotopes on silicate materials.
危险品化学品经营许可证（带存储）