2009 Volume 56 Issue 1 Pages 13-20
Hinai green tuff is quarried in Odate-shi, Akita prefecture in Japan and used for architectural materials. Hinai green tuff suspension is generated from the cutting and the grinding process and it is necessary to treat the solution with precipitants. A chemical flocculant has been used as a precipitation agent for fine particles in the suspension. However, using a chemical flocculant agent produces a wasteful mixture of particles and flocculants, which are impossible to be used as a resource. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new precipitation method without using precipitants for green tuff particles. In this study, the zeta potential of Hinai green tuff particles in suspension was measured to gain the basic electrochemical properties of the colloidal suspension. We then developed a new precipitation method using sonochemical reaction at 200 kHz, 200 W. From results of the zeta potential measurement using an electrophoresis method, the particles exhibited −50 mV at pH 7.0 and 0 mV at below pH 4.0. Sonochemical reaction was applied to control the pH of the suspension to precipitate the Hinai green tuff particulate. When ultrasonic irradiation was applied to the Hinai green tuff suspension, the pH decreased to 4.0 in 80 min and finally reached 3.3 in 180 min. We successfully extracted pure Hinai green tuff particles as precipitates from the suspension using ultrasonic irradiation.
