Phase relations and activities of components in the zinc-iron-sulfur system at 1100 and 1200 K

Phase relation in the zinc-iron-sulfur ternary system, which is of fundamental importance for discussing a new zinc distillation process with environmental consciousness proposed previously, has been investigated by equilibrating synthetic samples in evacuated sealed quartz tubes at temperatures of 1100 and 1200 K. By using the activities of iron and zinc in the iron-zinc binary system measured by means of an isopiestic method, the activities of the components in the zinc-iron-sulfur ternary system were calculated by applying the Gibbs-Duhem equation to the phase relation of metal-sulfide equilibrium in the zinc-iron-sulfur ternary system. The reaction path of the new zinc distillation process, in which zinc sulfide is directly reduced to zinc vapor with metallic iron and the sulfur in zinc sulfide is fixed as pyrrhotite, has been discussed in terms of the activities of the components in the zinc-iron-sulfur ternary system.