Cyclic Utilization of Zinc Borate Mother Solution via a New Method

Zinc borate mother solution is cycled to prepare 2ZnO·3B 2 O 3 ·7H 2 O, 3ZnO·5B 2 O 3 ·14H 2 O, and 4ZnO·B 2 O 3 ·H 2 O based on the properties of borate depolymerization. The results show uniform quadrilateral-prism-like and octahedron-like 2ZnO·3B 2 O 3 ·7H 2 O are synthesized at different temperatures. Flake-like 3ZnO·5B 2 O 3 ·14H 2 O is fabricated as reaction time prolonging, and 2ZnO·3B 2 O 3 ·7H 2 O changed into 3ZnO·5B 2 O 3 ·14H 2 O spontaneously. Meanwhile, resulting 2ZnO·3B 2 O 3 ·7H 2 O is investigated to fabricate high aspect ratio of 4ZnO·B 2 O 3 ·H 2 O whisker. Impressively, uniform 4ZnO·B 2 O 3 ·H 2 O whisker can be resynthesized by the filtrates of 2ZnO·3B 2 O 3 ·7H 2 O and 3ZnO·5B 2 O 3 ·14H 2 O via the zero-waste technology.