Microstructural and chemical characterization of stabilized spent vanadium pentoxide catalyst in copper smelting slag

The purpose of this research is to perform a microstructural characterization of the stabilized spent vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) catalyst in the copper smelter slag. The spent V2O5 catalyst (SVC) is a discarded material from a sulfuric acid production plant. The used SVC is a catalyst material supported in SiO2. The used copper smelting slag (CSS) was from a copper refining mine. The toxic V2O5 compound present in the SVC was stabilized via pyrometallurgical processing with the CSS in an electric furnace with a CSS/SVC 4:1 ratio at 1250 °C to obtain a fused compound. The microstructural and chemical characterization of the CSS, SVC used materials and the obtained fused compound, were performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled and Energy dispersed X-ray analyser (EDS), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and Differential Thermal Analyser (DTA-TGA). The fused compound was a complex slag that comprised of Fe2SiO4 and FeVO4 phases.