X-Ray, Thermal, FT-IR and morphological studies of zinc borate in presence of boric acid synthesized by ulexite

Abstract

Zinc borate (ZB) is an industrially important flame retardant material and ulexide is a plenty mineral in Turkey. ZB has been prepared via an aqueous reaction method using zinc oxide, synthesized boric acid by ulexide and reference zinc borate as seed as initial materials. This route is facile and acceptable for an economic and a new way to produce zinc borate. The products have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Thermogravimetric/Differential Thermal Analysis (TG/DTA) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to determine the morphological structure. The effects of experimental conditions on the product yield were investigated. Namely, the main factors that affect the formation of zinc borate were H₃BO₃/ZnO (boric acid/zinc oxide) ratio, water volume, amount of seed (in terms of boric acid, w/w) and reaction time. In conclusion, it was observed that boric acid by using ulexide mineral and zinc borate were synthesized successfully.