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Question

What is the role of carbon monoxide in the purification of nickel

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Solution

The Mond process, sometimes known as the carbonyl process, is a technique created by Ludwig Mond in 1890, to extract and purify nickel. The process was used commercially before the end of the 19th century. This process converts nickel oxides into pure nickel.

This process involves the fact that carbon monoxide combines with nickel readily and reversibly to give nickel carbonyl. No other element forms a carbonyl compound under the mild conditions used in the process.

This process has three steps:

1. Nickel oxide reacts with Syngas at 200 °C to give nickel, together with impurities including iron and cobalt.

NiO(s) + H2(g) → Ni(s) + H2O(g)

2. The impure nickel reacts with carbon monoxide at 50–60 °C to form the gas nickel carbonyl, leaving the impurities as solids.

Ni(s) + 4 CO(g) → Ni(CO)4(g)

3. The mixture of nickel carbonyl and Syngas is heated to 220–250 °C, resulting in decomposition back to nickel and carbon monoxide:

Ni(CO)4(g) → Ni(s) + 4 CO(g)

Steps 2 and 3 illustrate a chemical transport reaction, exploiting the properties that (1) carbon monoxide and nickel readily combine to give a volatile complex and (2) this complex degrades back to nickel and carbon monoxide at higher temperatures. The decomposition may be engineered to produce powder, but more commonly an existing substrate is coated with nickel


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