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Continuous morphology-controllable precipitation strategy for europium oxalate hydrates via microchannel reactor

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Abstract

A flow chemistry based continuous morphology-controllable precipitation strategy was successfully developed for synthesis of europium oxalate hydrate microparticles. The effects of flow ratio between raw materials within microchannels on the crystal structure, morphology and particle size distribution of the precipitated products were firstly studied. The results shown that both high yield and controllable morphology were achieved for Eu3+ precipitation reactions under its low concentration condition. The effects of supersaturation, mixing intensity, and reaction temperatures were also investigated in detail, which proved the continuous preparation of layered microparticles with concentrated size distribution can be achieved by this strategy. Multiple characterizations and comparison experiment synergistically reveal that the feed flow ratios of nitric acid and oxalic acid determines the morphology and particle size distribution due to affecting the mixing degree and phase composition of the precipitation reaction. In addition, the phase and morphology conversion of precipitates after calcination treatment were also studied, the as-calcined metal oxide powder exhibited a decent photoluminescence characteristic. In summary, this work demonstrates a promising precipitation strategy within micro-channels for mass controllable production of high-quality metal oxide materials.

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Acknowledgements

Financial supports from the Foundation for Innovation Groups of Basic Research in Gansu Province (No. 22ZD6GB020), Distinguished Young Scholars Foundation of China National Nuclear Corporation (No. 2021-76). National-Municipal Joint Engineering Laboratory for Chemical Process Intensification and Reaction, and Chongqing Key Laboratory of Chemical Process for Clean Energy and Resource Utilization are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Science and Technology of the 404 Company Limited, China National Nuclear Corporation, Lanzhou, 730050, People’s Republic of China

    Keyu Tao & Yefan Li

  2. Key Laboratory of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Technology, Lanzhou, 730050, People’s Republic of China

    Keyu Tao, Junjie Cheng & Zhi Cao

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, People’s Republic of China

    Hao Li

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  1. Keyu Tao
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Correspondence to Keyu Tao or Yefan Li.

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Article Highlights

• A flow ratio regulation approach for producing metal oxalate precipitates based on microchannel reactors has been proposed.

• Europium oxalate hydrates of layered structure with narrow size distribution are controllably obtained.

• The optimized sample provided excellent thermal stability of structure and decent fluorescence property.

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Tao, K., Li, H., Cheng, J. et al. Continuous morphology-controllable precipitation strategy for europium oxalate hydrates via microchannel reactor. J Flow Chem 13, 347–357 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41981-023-00277-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41981-023-00277-x

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