On the Constitution of Phosphor Contained in Undersea Iron Sand

Abstract

In view of very high content of phosphor found in a part of undersea iron sand which is recently developed in Japan as an unused mineral, enthusiastic efforts are being made at each research institute concerned to discover phosphor-containing minerals mixed in iron sand as the basic study of dephosphorization method.
Since the author discovered experimentally, in connection with this, an interesting instance of surface adsorption of phosphor, he will report here on it.
1) When iron sand concentrate was burned unground and daubed on its surface with ammonium molybdate solution, plenty of phosphor was observed to get separated from the surface of iron sand.
2) When concentrate was boiled unground in 5% HNO3 solution, the value of the greater part of phosphor could be obtained from the solution.
3) There are various kinds of phosphorous compounds at sea bottom, which seem to have been adsorbed on the surface of iron sand that has strong affinity by nature.