The Coprecipitation of Magnesium Iron (III) Hydroxide Powders from Aqueous Solution: Precipitate Compositions and Coprecipitation and Ageing Mechanisms

Series of magnesium iron(111) hydroxides were coprecipitated at ambient temperature from different mixed metal cation solutions, at C_{M tot} = 0.1 M and Mg/Fe₂ ratios from 4 to 1/4, with sodium hydroxide solution. The relevant single precipitations and the coprecipitations were monitored by potentiometric (pH) titration and the final coprecipitate compositions were examined by chemical analysis, infra-red spectrophotometry and thermal analysis. The coprecipitates onto aged α-FeOOH were simple mixtures of α-FeOOH and Mg(OH)₂. The main coprecipitates were either «molecular inclusion mixtures» of microcrystalline α-FeOOH with excess Mg(OH)₂ or similar mixtures of Mg(OH)₂ with excess α-FeOOH and some ten-twenty percent (relative to the Mg content) of magnesium hydroxo-ferrate(III) hydrate MgFe(OH)₄]₂ · h H₂O. The coprecipitates aged in alkaline magnesium hydroxide suspension at 20 °C and 40 °C were mixtures of Mg(OH)₂, α-FeOOH and forty to ninety percent (relative to the Mg content) of MgFe(OH)₄]₂ · h H₂O. The related α-FeOOH? NaOH and α-FeOOH? Mg(OH)₂ equilibria and the different coprecipitation mechanisms are discussed.