Please cite this article as: Timofeev, A., Migdisov, Art.A., Williams-Jones, A.E., An experimental study of the solubility and speciation of niobium in fluoride-bearing aqueous solutions at elevated temperature, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (2015), doi: http://dx.
AbstractThe solubility of Nb 2 O 5 and the speciation of niobium in HF-bearing aqueous solutions have been determined at temperatures of 150, 200, and 250 °C and saturated water pressure. At a pH of ~2 and at low HF concentration, niobium is transported primarily as the species Nb(OH) 4 + and at high HF concentration, as the species NbF 2 (OH) 3°. Equilibrium constants for the formation of Nb(OH) 4 + range from -11.23 ± 0.26 to -10.86 ± 0.24 and for the formation of NbF 2 (OH) 3° from -3.84 ± 0.20 to -5.08 ± 0.42, at 150 and 250 °C.The results of this study show that the solubility of Nb 2 O 5 (solid) in aqueous fluids increases with increasing HF concentration, but is not strongly affected by temperature. The influence of pH is variable;at low pH and HF concentration, a decrease in pH increases the solubility of Nb 2 O 5 (solid). At higher pH the reverse may be true. Modeling of the transport and deposition of niobium suggests that simple mixing with a brine is not an effective method for removing niobium from solution. By contrast, interaction of an acidic fluid with carbonate rock results in a rapid reduction of capacity of the fluid to mobilize niobium.