Determination of chromium valence state in the CaO–SiO2–FeO–MgO–CrOx system by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

The chromium valence states in the CaO–SiO2–FeO–MgO–CrOx system were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results indicated that the XPS peaks of Cr 2p3/2 and Cr 2p1/2 locate at the binding energy of ∼577 and ∼586 eV, respectively. There are three kinds of chromium ions such as bivalent Cr(ii), trivalent Cr(iii), and hexavalent Cr(vi) in the CaO–SiO2–FeO–MgO–CrOx slag. Cr(iii) is the dominant valence state, and more than 77.99% Cr is trivalent Cr(iii). The fraction of Cr(ii)/Cr is in the range of 11.24–17.22%. The fraction of Cr(vi)/Cr is below 4.80%. The fraction of Cr(ii)/Cr decreases with increasing slag basicity, Cr2O3 content, temperature, or oxygen pressure log(PO2), while the fraction of Cr(iii)/Cr increases with increasing basicity, Cr2O3 content, temperature, or oxygen pressure. The trend of change is opposite. Low log(PO2), high Cr2O3 content, and high temperature are beneficial to reduce the toxic hexavalent Cr(vi). The slag basicity has little influence on the fraction of Cr(vi)/Cr