Leachability of molybdenum from ternary phosphate glasses

Abstract

With a view to use glasses as a source of molybdenum, which is one of the micronutrients required by plants, a systematic study of the leachability of molybdenum from ternary phosphate glasses having molar compositions of 25MoO3·25X·50P2O5 (where X = Li2O, Na2O, K2O, CaO, B2O3, or SiO2) was carried out. Leaching of molybdenum ions has been studied as a function of pH, which shows that leaching increases with increasing pH of the solutions. The concentration of molybdenum ions in the leachate decreases with increasing bond strength between nonbridging oxygen ions and the cations in glasses. Leaching increases with an increase in leaching time and decreases with an increase in the particle sizes of the glasses. P2O5 was also leached along with MoO3. The leaching characteristics of P2O5 from tne glasses are also reported.