Tellurium application, separation and purification

Tellurium is a rare, dispersed element that occurs in extremely low concentrations in the earth's crust, with a abundance of only 1 × 10-9 ~ 16 × 10-9. Rare dispersed element tellurium is widely used in modern industry, advanced technology and national defense science. Tellurium is widely used in metallurgy, instrumentation, electronics, chemicals, glass and other industrial fields. About 55% of tellurium is used as alloy additive in metallurgy to enhance the mechanical properties of steel, lead, copper and copper alloy. Also it is used in chemical industry as decolorizer, colorant and special optical glass in glass ceramic industry.And rubber vulcanization process accelerator, organic reaction catalyst;It can also be used as additive for petroleum cracking catalyst and catalyst for preparing ethylene glycol. It is used in the pharmaceutical industry as insecticide, disinfectant, antioxidant and sterilizer, and has the effect of inhibiting the proliferation of leukemia cells, and used in copiers, as a toner and as a solid lubricant.Moreover, tellurium compounds are used to make radiation detectors, solar cells and infrared detectors for night-vision devices and ground-based resource exploration.Tellurium thermoelectric converters are used in microwave devices, thermal generators and special underwater missile cooling devices for aerospace power systems.

Tellurium is mainly derived from anode mud from copper refineries, usually containing 2% to 10% tellurium. Other sources include mud from sulfuric acid plants and smelters, bismuth telluride concentrate, lead anode mud, and dust from electrostatic precipitators. At present, methods of separating and purifying tellurium mainly include sulfuric roasting, baking soda roasting, alkaline high pressure leaching, oxidation acid leaching, acid leaching - reduction-electrodeposition process,  liquid film method, solvent extraction separation method, microorganism method, vacuum distillation method, zone melting refining method, electrolytic refining method and so on.

Product recommendation : Tellurium

Changsha SANTECH provides Tellurium Metal Ingot, Tellurium Metal Granule, Tellurium Metal Powder, Tellurium Dioxide Powder, etc. Please email us if you are interested in our products. Thank you!