What are the high value-added applications of barite?

Barite is a barium sulfate mineral, and its main composition is barium sulfate (BaSO4). As an important non-metallic raw material mineral, it has the advantages of insoluble in water, high density, good filling, non-toxic, easy to absorb radiation, etc. It is widely used in chemical, petroleum, building materials, medicine and other industries.

Barite resources are the dominant mineral in my country, but the disorderly development and utilization for many years has led to the gradual decrease of the competitiveness of barite resources in the international market. my country's annual consumption of barite resources is huge, of which 85% to 90% of the total consumption is used as weighting agent for oil and natural gas drilling; 5% to 10% is used as chemical raw material to produce barium compounds, which are used as coagulants for synthetic rubber. , grease additives, catalysts, phosphors, etc.; the last part that accounts for less than 5% is used as road construction, mineralizers for cement, fillers, etc. Increasing investment in technology research and development of barite-based high-end products and promoting industrial upgrading is one of the effective strategies for rational and effective development and utilization of barite resources in my country.

1. Barite-based polymer materials

Barite is added to the polymer as a filler, which is generally treated by ultra-fine modification process. The modified barite has good compatibility with polymer materials and can be uniformly dispersed in the matrix material to form inorganic/organic composite material. Barite has the characteristics of low cost, easy mining, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, light resistance, etc. Therefore, adding it to the rubber material can reduce the shrinkage rate of the rubber material and improve the dimensional stability and rigidity of the material. , thereby increasing the application range of rubber materials; on the other hand, adding it as a filler to rubber materials can increase the added value of barite and reduce the cost of rubber materials. In addition, barite has high density and stable chemical properties. When barite is added to paint coatings, the acid and alkali resistance and weather resistance of the coating are significantly enhanced.

2. Barite radiation protection material

The barium element with extremely high neutron inelastic scattering cross section can shield neutrons well, which directly promotes the application of barite cement-based materials in neutron shielding protection engineering. Using ultra-fine barite powder to make high-density barium cement, barite mortar and barite concrete building materials can replace metal lead plates to shield nuclear reactors and build radon, radon and X-ray-proof buildings for the atomic energy industry , nuclear power plants and X-ray diffraction laboratories.

3. Barite-based composite conductive materials

Barite is a natural white extender pigment. It uses barite as the core material and uses doped and modified SnO2 as the coating layer to make light-colored conductive pigments, which can significantly improve the added value of barite and The use value also expands the application scope of barite.

4. Raw material of barium compound

Barite is an important mineral resource for barium production. The barium-containing ferrosilicon alloy itself has excellent physical and chemical properties, and the barium-containing ferrosilicon alloy formed by doping barium in the steel production and casting process can significantly improve the quality of the steel. At present, the bulk barite is mainly used as the raw material, and it is put into the submerged arc furnace to produce the barium-containing ferrosilicon alloy on a large scale by the continuous carbothermic reduction process.

5. Heavy metal ion adsorption material

Dissolvable toxic metal ions have caused serious pollution to the environment in recent years, and the removal of toxic metal ions is one of the effective means to improve environmental problems. The study found that due to the structure of barite, hexavalent chromium ions interacted with the surface of barite, and the overgrowth of barite grains formed Ba(CrO4, SO4) solid, thus achieving the absorption of chromium ions, The purpose of purifying the environment is achieved.

6. Barite inorganic composite pigment

Titanium dioxide is a high-quality coating and occupies an important place in modern coatings. At the same time, titanium dioxide is also an important photocatalytic material. It has been found that nano-titanium dioxide can treat more than 80 kinds of toxic compounds. Due to the increasing use of titanium dioxide, it is imminent to find a replacement for it. Barite has high whiteness and stable properties. As a core material composited with titanium dioxide, it can effectively solve the characteristics of easy agglomeration of titanium dioxide and improve the photocatalytic properties of titanium dioxide. At the same time, as a coating, it can be added to the coating instead of titanium dioxide.