Studies on the Electrolytic preparation of Beryllium Oxide from Beryl

Abstract

An electrolytic method has been described for the production of beryllium oxide from a solution containing sodium beryllium fluoride obtained by leaching sintered mass of beryl with either sodium silico-fluoride or sodium ferric fluoride. Very high current efficiency has generally been obtained for the process. In some the experiments, however, it has been noticed that the current efficiency has been shown to be due to two factors: (i) the impurities like silica, alumina and iron oxide accompanying the beryllium oxide and (ii) the carrying down by adsorption of the complex fluoride by the hydroxide. The economics of the electrolytic process has been made of this process and the hitherto know chemical process.