Rare earth polishing powder, a cerium oxide, is known as a "senior beautician" for modern industrial products. Due to its superior chemical and physical properties, various optical glass devices, television picture tubes, and even semiconductor chips and metal precision products, under its polishing, not only have a high "face value", but also have a significant improvement in quality.
In the decades since the advent of rare earth polishing powders, China has gradually developed into a leading production area with 90% of the world ’s production and sales in this field.
On the morning of June 6, in the laboratory of the Life Building of the Qianhu Campus of Nanchang University, 57-year-old Professor Li Yongxiu said in an interview with the reporter of Science and Technology Daily that from the perspective of application, the most advanced technology must be the simplest. To this end, he and his team have persisted for 20 years, striving to build a "golden bridge" in the rare earth polishing powder industry chain to improve quality and efficiency, with a view to reflecting the due technology in the "rare earth kingdom" family. Take on.
Another path to the process
To produce rare earth polishing materials, like other rare earth refined products, it is necessary to separate the rare earth carbonate mixture (material liquid) through a series of procedures to separate crystals that meet the purity requirements. The separation technology adopted abroad not only has high cost and large amount of washing water, but also it is difficult to control the bulk density, particle size and morphology of the product, which makes the price of polishing powder high, and its technical barriers, capital and environmental protection thresholds. Become a stumbling block in front of domestic production enterprises.
With the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Science and Technology Department of Jiangxi Province and other departments, Li Yongxiu's team started by changing the feeding method and creatively replaced hydrochloric acid with hydrochloric acid as the separation mother liquor. At the same time, it succeeded with only one set of equipment system It has solved technical bottlenecks such as excessive chloride content and difficulty in adjusting physical properties. With the cost of "Xiaomi plus rifle", the quality effect of "airplane and cannon" has been achieved, and due to the drastic reduction in the amount of washing water and the circulation of chemical solutions Utilization, its environmental protection benefits have also been significantly improved.
New products of independent innovation
In the long-term research process of dealing with rare earth polishing powders, Li Yongxiu's team broke through the traditional concept that rare earth polishing powders must be "angled", creatively using rare earth carbonate as a precursor, using mechanochemical reaction doping and subsequent surface modification to achieve The spherical rare-earth polishing oxide was used to prepare a new type of rare-earth polyurethane high-speed polishing powder with excellent performance, and its comprehensive technical indicators have taken the lead in China.
As a scientific research activity serving industrialized production, Li Yongxiu has always adhered to the concept of using professional results to achieve non-professional operations in the production line. He vividly called it "standardized side dishes between industrial kitchen upstream and downstream products." ". To this end, he led the team numerous times to and from domestic manufacturing enterprises, working hard to improve the standardized procedures for the transformation of scientific research results, so as to reduce or even eliminate the unstable factors affecting product quality.
In 2017 and 2018, the “New Rare Earth Carbonate Crystallization Method and Key Technologies and Industrialization of Polishing Materials for Green Manufacturing” and “Preparation and Application Technology of Rare Earth Carbonate Precursors and New Rare Earth Polishing Materials” completed by Li Yongxiu ’s team won national science and technology. Nominated for the second prize of progress and the second prize for scientific and technological progress of Jiangxi Province. The results have been applied in Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Shandong to achieve an output value of 8.087 billion yuan. Its economic and social benefits have become a leader in the domestic industry.