Mining, Minerals Processing and Metallurgical Engineering

Preparation of high-purity tellurium based on simulation-assisted zone refining

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  • a School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China;

    b BGRIMM Technology Group Co., Ltd., Beijing 100160, China;

    c Guangdong First Rare Materials Co., Ltd., Qingyuan 511517, China

Online published: 2026-04-02

Abstract

The effect of temperature on molten zone length was investigated through simulation to optimize the control of molten zone length during the experimental process. The temperature gradient distribution within the molten zone during zone refining was simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics software and experimentally validated. The simulated molten zone length showed good agreement with the actual measured length. The experimental study of tellurium purification by zone refining was conducted under the following conditions: three passes of zone refining, a hydrogen flow rate of 0.5 L/min, and molten zone movement speeds of 0.5 and 1.0 mm/min. The results demonstrated that the removal efficiencies of impurities such as Ca and Cu exceeded 95%, while the removal efficiency of phosphorus (P) reached over 70%. And the purity of tellurium reached 6N.

Cite this article

Qing-hua TIAN, Zhi-qiang HE, Zhi-peng XU, Hai-bei WANG, Liu ZHU . Preparation of high-purity tellurium based on simulation-assisted zone refining[J]. Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, 2026 , 36(2) : 638 -648 . DOI: 10.1016/S1003-6326(25)66987-1

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