How does germanium dioxide reduce to germanium
Germanium dioxide, the molecular formula of GeO2, is the dioxide of germanium with the same electronic formula as carbon dioxide. It is white powder or colorless crystal. There are two kinds of hexagonal crystal system (low temperature stability) which is slightly soluble in water and square crystal system which is insoluble. The transition temperature is 1033 ℃. It is mainly used for making metal germanium, as well as spectral analysis and semiconductor materials.
It is mainly used for making reduced germanium ingot , zone fused germanium ingot , organic germanium, PET catalyst, germanium tetrachloride for optical fiber, BGO crystal and compound crystal, etc.
Germanium dioxide is usually reduced to metal germanium by hydrogen reduction method. Hydrogen substitution method is a method to reduce metal compounds to metal at high temperature. Compared with other reduction methods (such as carbon reduction and zinc reduction), the product is pure and easy to control. It is widely used in the production of tungsten, molybdenum, cobalt, iron and other metal powders as well as silicon and germanium.
