Use of Commercial Oxygen Probe During the Production of Lead and Zinc Smelting

This paper proposes a fast method to measure the oxygen potential in the lead-zinc smelting furnace, by using the commercial probes to test the oxygen potential of the slag in an running furnace. In the measurement process, the response time of the signal of the electric potential and the temperature is 10~15 seconds, which means that the measurement time can be controlled within 20 seconds. The oxygen potential's logarithm is in the range of-11.37 to-10.32, that is, the oxygen potential is in the range of 10-6.37~10-5.32Pa. The main elements in the slag are tested and analyzed for different samples which are, respectively, obtained by air-cooled and water-cooled methods. The oxygen potential is obtained according to the relationship between the Gibbs free energy and the temperature, as well as between the Gibbs free energy and the oxygen potential. It is shown that the conditions of the oxygen potential measured by the probes agree with the theoretical analysis from the oxygen potential diagrams.