Molybdenum is a rare metal, which is widely used in modern industry. Adding molybdenum to steel and iron can improve the strength, toughness and corrosion resistance, making it one of the best alloy additive elements; Adding 15%~30% molybdenum to nickel base alloy can greatly improve the corrosion resistance; Molybdenum-rhenium alloy seamless tubes containing 50% molybdenum and 50% rhenium have good high-temperature performance, which can be used in the situation near the melting point; Molybdenum wire is widely used in electronic industry (such as silicon chip support, new light source electrode lead wire); Molybdenum compounds can be used as catalysts and reagents, and pigments can also be prepared.

Molybdenum ore accounts for 97.5% of the total cost of ferromolybdenum production, so the maximum increase of molybdenum recovery rate is of great importance to reduce costs and improve economic benefits. The links that may cause molybdenum loss must be strictly controlled.

* The vapor pressure of molybdenum trioxide is low and easy to sublimate, so reducing the sublimation amount of MoO3(s) and recovering molybdenum-containing dust must be paid attention to.
* In the roasting of molybdenum concentrate, the roasting temperature should be accurately controlled to minimize the sublimation of MoO3(s), and the recovered molybdenum dust should be re-roasting with an efficient purification system.
* In smelting, sealed furnace body can not only reduce the heat loss and the amount of reducing agent aluminum, but also reduce the amount of molybdenum loss in slag, and is conducive to the purification and dust removal of flue gas. The molybdenum-containing dust collected by the dust collector can be returned to smelting after lumping. If the dust contains other metal elements, comprehensive utilization of the dust should be considered.
* Ferromolybdenum particles included in ferromolybdenum slag must be recovered, which can be recovered by magnetic separation method.
* Finishing chips and nodular iron at the bottom of the furnace are the largest amounts of molybdenum-containing return material, so it should be combined with mature molybdenum ore smelting.


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Alloys

As an alloying element of steel, molybdenum has the following advantages. It can increase the strength and toughness of steel, as well as the corrosion resistance of steel in acid and alkali solution and liquid metal; improve the hardenability, weldability and heat resistance of steel. For example, stainless steel containing 4%-5% molybdenum is often used in places with serious erosion and corrosion, such as Marine equipment and chemical equipment.

The non-ferrous alloys are formed by adding other elements (such as titanium, zirconium, hafnium, tungsten and rare earth elements) to the base of molybdenum. These elements not only play the role of solid solution strengthening and maintaining low-temperature plasticity but also form stable and dispersive carbide phases, which can improve the strength and recrystallization temperature of the alloys. Molybdenum based alloy is used for high heating element, extrusion grinding tool, glass melting furnace electrode, jet coating, metal processing tool and spacecraft parts due to its good strength, mechanical stability, and high ductility.

Chemical industry

Lubricant

Molybdenum dioxide is a good solid lubricant because of its low friction coefficient and high yield strength. It can be used in vacuum and various ultra-low temperature and high temperature, so it is widely used in the gas turbine, gear, mold, aerospace, nuclear industry, and other fields.

Catalyst

Molybdenum compounds are one of the most widely used catalysts, which are widely used in chemical, petroleum, plastics, textile, and other industries. For example, molybdenum disulfide has the properties of sulfur resistance and can catalyze carbon monoxide hydrogenation to produce alcohol under certain conditions. It is a promising chemical catalyst C1; the combination of molybdenum, cobalt, and nickel was used as a catalyst for oil refining and pretreatment. Other common molybdenum-containing catalysts include molybdenum disulfide, molybdenum oxide, molybdate, and ammonium parmolybdate.

Pigment

Chromium yellow and cadmium yellow are the most common inorganic pigments in the world today, but lead, chromium, and cadmium are all toxic. Molybdenum yellow is not only non-toxic, but also has a bright color, light, thermal stability is good, and therefore used in pigments and inks, plastics, rubber products, and ceramics.

Corrosion inhibitor

Molybdate has very low toxicity and is very weak for organic additives in corrosion inhibitors, and molybdenum is commonly used in the construction of air-conditioning cooling water and heating systems to prevent corrosion of low carbon steel.

The electronic and electrical field

Molybdenum has good electrical conductivity and high-temperature resistance that is similar to the thermal expansion coefficient of glass, so it is widely used in the manufacturing of spiral filament wire, lead wire, and hook. In addition, molybdenum wire is also an ideal electrode wire for EDM wire cutting machine, which can cut various kinds of steel and hard alloy. It has stable discharge machining performance and can effectively improve the precision of the die.

The monolayer molybdenum material has good semiconductor properties, some of which are better than the widely used silicon and graphene. Some enterprises of recycling waste molybdenum have successfully used MoS2 to manufacture the molybdenum-based flexible microprocessing chip, which is only 20 percent of the same silicon chip size, and the power consumption is extremely low.

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Molybdenum, like tungsten, is a refractory rare metal. After the discovery of molybdenum by Swedish scientist C.W. Scheel in 1778, it took more than a decade for Henri Moissan to make molybdenum from an electric furnace, which made the metal available to humans for the first time with many excellent physical, chemical and mechanical properties.

At present, molybdenum and its alloys have a broad application and good prospect in metallurgy, agriculture, electrical, chemical, environmental protection and aerospace, and other important departments, which have become one of the national economies an important raw material and irreplaceable strategic material. The consumption form of molybdenum is mainly industrial molybdenum trioxide, accounting for 70%, molybdenum iron about 20%, metal molybdenum, and molybdenum chemical products about 5%. It can be seen that the development of iron and steel industry plays a decisive role in the consumption of molybdenum, however, the application of molybdenum in high technology and other fields will continue to expand and develop with the development of science and technology.

Molybdenum is characterized by high purity, high-temperature resistance, and low steam pressure and so on so that it is often used to make heat body and structural materials for the high-temperature furnace. In the production of tungsten molybdenum and hard alloy, the reduction furnace and sintering furnace are mostly made by heating molybdenum wire. Molybdenum rod is also used as the heating body in the continuous sintering of some iron products, which is hung by molybdenum hook on both sides of the furnace. Molybdenum heating elements are widely used in high-temperature resistance furnace and sapphire growth furnace due to their ability to withstand high temperature and corrosion. This kind of furnace is usually reductive atmosphere or non-oxidizing atmosphere. Molybdenum has good ablation resistance in molten quartz and is used as an electrode for electric melting in the glass industry. Only 7.8 grams molybdenum electrode lost for each ton of glass, and the service life of which can be more than one year. In addition to being an electrode, molybdenum is also used as a high-temperature structural material for glass melting, such as guide channel, pipe, the crucible, flow port and mixing rod for rare earth smelting.

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Although molybdenum was discovered in the late 18th century, it was used before discovered. For example, in the 14th century, Japan used steel made of molybdenum to make sabers. In the 16th century, the molybdenum minerals are used as graphite because they are similar in appearance and properties to lead, galena, and graphite, and the Europeans collectively referred to the minerals as "molybdenite".

In 1754, Swedish chemist Bengt Andersson Qvist tested the molybdenum mine and found it contained no lead. So he thought that molybdenum is not the same substance as galena.

In 1778, Swedish chemist Scheer discovered that nitric acid and graphite could not react, and a white powder was obtained after reacting with the molybdenum, which was boiled with a base solution and crystallized into a salt. He thought the white powder was a kind of metal oxide, but after mixing it with the charcoal, he didn’t get the metal, and when heated with sulfur, he got its original molybdenum deposit. Therefore, he thought that molybdenum should be a mineral of unknown elements.

A Swede named jelm used the carbon reduction method to separate a new metal from the white powder and named it "Molybdenum" in 1781 according to Scheele.

In 1891, France's Schneider Schneider took the lead in producing molybdenum as an alloying element. They found that molybdenum had superior performance and was only half as dense as tungsten. Molybdenum gradually replaced tungsten as the alloy element of steel, thus opening the application of molybdenum industry.

At the end of the 19th century, the properties of molybdenum steel were found to be similar to that of tungsten steel after adding molybdenum to steel. In 1900, the production of molybdenum iron was developed, and the special performance of molybdenum steel to meet the needs of gun steel was also discovered, which made the production of molybdenum steel rapidly developed in 1910. Since then, molybdenum has become an important component of various structural steels of heat resistance and anti-corrosion, as well as an important component of non-ferrous metal - nickel and chromium alloys.

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In terms of global consumption structure, molybdenum is regarded as the ally of iron. In western developed countries, 80% of the molybdenum demand comes from steel, 30% from stainless steel, 30% from low alloy steel, 10% from drilling tool head and cutting tool, and 10% from cast steel. Another 20 percent of molybdenum consumption is in molybdenum chemicals and petroleum refining.

Alloy steel, stainless steel, tool steel, and cast iron are the main applications of molybdenum. Molybdenum is an important additive element in most superalloys and many nickel and titanium alloys. Molybdenum can accelerate solid strengthening and prevent chloride pitting at high temperature, so as to improve the antiseptic performance in reducing solution.

Silicon-molybdenum rod made of molybdenum powder and silica powder is widely used as a heating element in the electric furnace. Silicon-molybdenum rod can be directly used as an electrode in the fused glass and inserted into the glass material to melt the material around the electrode, so it can be used as corrosion resistance to the molten glass melting furnace of the glass electrode and parts.

In addition, molybdenum films can be made as molybdenum targets on high-frequency sputtering, and uniform films of molybdenum with certain thickness can be made on the substrate, so as to form a conductive electrode and make glass devices. Besides that, molybdenum target photography has a high diagnostic value for breast diseases, especially for early breast cancer. Molybdenum discs can be used as an electronic component of high power and high-reliability semiconductor for heat dissipation.

The corrosion resistance of stainless steel is due to the fact that chromium naturally forms a thin protective passivation film on the surface of the steel, and molybdenum can strengthen the passivated film and regenerate the passivated film rapidly when it is damaged by chloride. The increase of molybdenum content can improve the corrosion resistance of pitting points and cracks in stainless steel.

316 Mo (2% ~ 3% Mo) is the most widely used stainless steel containing molybdenum, which is designated to be used as cans, pipes, and heat exchange materials for food processing and processing and for the production of pharmaceuticals. Increasing the molybdenum content can enhance the resistance to chlorine in the air, so the type 316 Mo can be used as an alternative material for offshore and coastal buildings.

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Molybdenum has good conductivity and high-temperature performance, in particular, the thermal expansion coefficient of which is very similar to that of glass. Molybdenum is widely used in the manufacture of spiral filament wires, lead wires, hooks, supports, sidebars and other components in the bulb. It is used as a grid and anode supporting material in the tube. In the ultra-large integrated circuit, molybdenum is used as a metal oxide semiconductor gate, and the "bimetallic effect" can be eliminated by installing the integrated circuit in molybdenum. The ultrathin seamless molybdenum tube (about 15 mu m) can be used as an anode holder for high definition television tube, this type of television has an image scan line of 1125, which is twice as big as the average TV set. The molybdenum wafer can also be used as the substrate and heat sink of the power transistor thermal shield and silicon rectifier.

In the modern electronics industry, Mo-Re alloys can be used as structural materials for vacuum tubes and special bulbs in addition to pure molybdenum. Mo-Re alloys and TZM alloy can also be used for high power microwave thermionic cathode structure of pipe and millimeter wave components, the working temperature of which can reach 1200  and the current density can be up to 10 amp/cm2.

The temperature of pure molybdenum filament is low, and it can be brittle at high temperature and affect the service life. In recent years, some elements have been developed to add Si, k, and C to improve the recrystallization temperature and produce "high-temperature molybdenum wire". By adding the rare earth element yttrium, cerium and lanthanum in the process of molybdenum oxide production, it can effectively improve the re-crystal temperature and overcome the brittleness of the material.

The rapid development of the mold industry makes the technology of EDM technology widely used. Molybdenum wire is an ideal electrode wire for EDM, which can be used to cut all kinds of steel and hard alloy, and the stability of discharge machining can effectively improve the precision of the mold.

These are the two most extensive uses of molybdenum wire. The development of the light bulb manufacturing industry and the rise of the mold manufacturing industry have made the production and consumption of molybdenum wire advance rapidly. Molybdenum strips can be stamped and drawn to manufacture lamp components (such as Hr), electron device, evaporation boats, and many other precision parts for diverse applications. Recently, a discoloration of molybdenum trioxide has been developed. This material will change color under bright light and can be easily restored. It can be used for electronic computer optical storage device and multiple photocopying materials.

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