Solubility of oxygen and sulfur in copper-iron mattes

Abstract

The concentrations of oxygen and sulfur in unsaturated and magnetite-saturated Cu-Fe mattes were measured as a function of oxygen and sulfur pressures and iron metal weight fraction of the matte (W Fe = wt Fe/(wt Fe + wt Cu)). The liquid matte samples were equilibrated with streams of gas of known pressures of S2 and O2 at 1468 K. Empirical correlation equations were developed to describe the experimental results. The correlation for oxygen in unsaturated matte is wt pct O = 2.50 P O 2 0.200 P S 2 -0.142 (1 + 9.0 W Fe 2.19, and in magnetite-saturated matte it is wt pct O = 0.14 + 2.39 W Fe + 12.0 W Fe 2 for 0.001 <P S 2 ≤ 0.01 atm and it is wt pct O = -3.06 + 2.39 W Fe + 12.0 W Fe 2 - 1.60 log P S 2 for 0.01 <P S 2 < 0.023 atm. A single complex equation of P O 2, P S 2, and W Fe describes the sulfur concentrations in both unsaturated and magnetite-saturated mattes. © 1986 The Metallurgical Society of American Institute of Mining.