Actually I was working on a piezoelectric project and I kept the 99.9% pure bismuth oxide powder at 800 C for 4 hours. When I opened the furnace, the bismuth oxide got sintered and took the form of the crucible. I almost placed 100 g of Bi2O3 in the furnace and now the weight of the solid sintered product is roughly the same. I would like to know if there is any way by which I could recover the powdered Bi2O3 without contaminating it?
I could make almost 10 batches with this amount so I don't want to discard it.
P.s. I have planetary ball mill (with Zr medium) and mortar and pestle.
Try to dissolve your material in small amount of hot concentrated nitric acid. After cooling down bismuth nitrate will precipitate and you can transform it back to oxide by heating. Of course, there will be some losses, but if you work carefully, the final product will not contain any contaminations.
Alexander B. Missyul’
Thank you for your answer. However, I need some guidance regarding this process.
1. How much HNO3 do I need to dissolve 50 g of Bi2O3?
2. For how long do I have to heat the mixture before cooling it down?
3. For how long do I have to heat bismuth nitrate in order to get Bi2O3?
I would appreciate if you could share the parameters.
This is not a typical task, so I do not think that anyone knows precise parameters. You can try to find some hints in the laboratory guidebooks such as Handbuch der Präparativen Anorganischen Chemie by Brauer.
Have you tried High energy Ball milling, as suggested by Md. Abdur Rahman? Your planetary ball mill should work fine for that purpose.
Thank you for your responses. I first ground it using mortar and pestle then did ball milling for 2 hours. I got my powder back. Now I will do XRD to confirm if it's actually Bi2O3 or not.
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