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Partially stabilized Y₂O₃–ZrO₂ (Y-PSZ) is often used as a material in the field of oxygen sensors and batteries. However, the presence of a tetragonal phase will seriously reduce the conductivity of Y-PSZ materials. As a sintering aid, Bi₂O₃ can be used to sinter materials with high oxygen ion conductivity at low temperatures. It is the first choice for the Y-PSZ doped system. A new microwave sintering technique prepared Bi₂O₃–Y-PSZ powders. The effects of doping amount of Bi₂O₃ on the microstructure, phase transition, and tetragonal phase content of Y-PSZ during sintering were researched. The results displayed that doping Bi₂O₃ improved the tetragonal phase content of the ZrO₂. The tetragonal phase content of the samples increased from 59.72% to 94.69% after sintering at 750 °C for 1 h. After doping Bi₂O₃, the aggregation of the samples reduced gradually, and the particles dispersed evenly. The average particle sizes of raw material and samples doped with different amounts of Bi₂O₃ were 0.0794 μm, 0.0638 μm, 0.0629 μm, 0.0794 μm, 0.1116 μm, respectively. Therefore, in the doping amount (1 mol%-4 mol%), the Bi₂O₃ doped Y-PSZ system with 2 mol% has the highest tetragonal phase content, the best dispersion, the smallest average particle size, and the most uniform particle distribution.

Se can enhance lactation performance by improving nutrient utilization and antioxidant status. However, sodium selenite (SS) can be reduced to non-absorbable elemental Se in the rumen, thereby reducing the intestinal availability of Se. The study investigated the impacts of SS and coated SS (CSS) supplementation on lactation performance, nutrient digestibility, ruminal fermentation and microbiota in dairy cows. Sixty multiparous Holstein dairy cows were blocked by parity, daily milk yield and days in milk and randomly assigned to five treatments: control, SS addition (0.3 mg Se/kg DM as SS addition) or CSS addition (0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 mg Se/kg DM as CSS addition for low CSS (LCSS), medium CSS (MCSS) and high CSS (HCSS), respectively). Experiment period was 110 days with 20 days of adaptation and 90 days of sample collection. Dry matter intake was higher for MCSS and HCSS compared with control. Yields of milk, milk fat and milk protein and feed efficiency were higher for MCSS and HCSS than for control, SS and LCSS. Digestibility of DM and organic matter was highest for CSS addition, followed by SS addition and then control. Digestibility of CP was higher for MCSS and HCSS than for control, SS and LCSS. Higher digestibility of ether extract, NDF and ADF was observed for SS or CSS addition. Ruminal pH decreased with dietary Se addition. Acetate to propionate ratio and ammonia N were lower, and total volatile fatty acids (VFAs) concentration was greater for SS, MCSS and HCSS than control. Ruminal H ion concentration was highest for MCSS and HCSS and lowest for control. Activities of cellobiase, carboxymethyl-cellulase, xylanase and protease and copies of total bacteria, fungi, Ruminococcus flavefaciens, Fibrobacter succinogenes and Ruminococcus amylophilus increased with SS or CSS addition. Activity of α-amylase, copies of protozoa, Ruminococcus albus and Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens and serum glucose, total protein, albumin and glutathione peroxidase were higher for SS, MCSS and HCSS than for control and LCSS. Dietary SS or CSS supplementation elevated blood Se concentration and total antioxidant capacity activity. The data implied that milk yield was elevated due to the increase in total tract nutrient digestibility, total VFA concentration and microorganism population with 0.2 or 0.3 mg Se/kg DM from CSS supplementation in dairy cows. Compared with SS, HCSS addition was more efficient in promoting lactation performance of dairy cows.

In this paper, the stability of CaO doped partially stabilised zirconia (CaO-PSZ) prepared by electrofusion method was improved from 88.14% to 95% within one hour using the microwave heating method. The increase of the stability rate was because of the microwave heating method’s advantages, including selective heating and fast heating. Analysis techniques, namely X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), were used to analysis the influences of the holding time (1–4 h) on the CaO doped PSZ samples at a heating temperature of 1100 °C to understand the fundamental mechanism of the optimisation process. The Raman and XRD spectra were fitted by the Gaussian method to further analysis the effect of holding time on the microstructure evolution of the samples. The fitting results indicated that the sample’s crystal quality and stability were improved after microwave heating, and the optimised holding time is 2h.

In this paper, 3 mol% yttria-doped tetragonal zirconia polycrystal material (3 mol% Y₂O₃–ZrO₂) was prepared using an optimised pressureless sintering process. The phase change and particle size distribution of Y₂O₃–ZrO₂ during sintering were studied, and the effect of sintering temperature on the properties of Y₂O₃–ZrO₂ was analysed. The raw materials and prepared samples were analysed using XRD, Raman spectroscopy, SEM, and Gaussian mathematical fitting. The results show that sintering encourages the transformation of the monoclinic phase into the tetragonal phase, thus improving the crystallinity of the sample. The relative content of the tetragonal phase in the sample increased from 57.43% to 99.80% after sintering at 1200 °C for 1 h. In the range of sintering temperatures studied in this paper (800–1200 °C), the zirconia material sintered at 1000 °C presented the lowest porosity and the best density.

The recovery mechanism of manganese from low-grade pyrolusite was studied through microwave and conventional leaching, respectively, and pyrite was used as the reducing agent. An improvement on the manganese leaching rate with microwave heating was noticed which may be caused by the suppressing of the formation of sulfur passivation layer by the unique dipole rotation heating mechanism of microwave energy. To confirm this hypothesis, the leaching time, the amount of reducing agent, and the concentration of sulfuric acid were studied, and the surface compositions of the leaching residues were analyzed. The results evidenced that the sulfur content on the surface of residue produced by microwave leaching was significantly reduced compared to the results produced by conventional heating, which proved the rationality of the hypothesis. The recovery of leaching assisted with microwave heating was improved compared to that assisted with conventional heating under the same experimental conditions (liquid-solid ratio: 10:1, leaching temperature: 90 ℃, M(pyrite)/M(pyrolusite): 0.2, sulfuric acid concentration: 1.2 mol/L, stirring speed: 400 rpm). The corresponding peak value of the leaching rate was 95.07 % and 75.08 %. Additionally, microwave leaching is very environmentally friendly since it significantly reduces the amount of reducing agent and sulfuric acid as well as reaction time.

In this work, microwave heating approach was introduced into the preparation process of zirconia materials to overcome the tricky technical defects during the traditional electric arc furnace method. Magnesia-partially stabilised zirconia (MgO-PSZ) with enhanced stability and a uniform microstructure was prepared via microwave heating of a ZrO₂ sample manufactured by the electric arc furnace method. The effects of microwave heating on the phase stability properties, microstructure, and surface morphology of the prepared MgO-PSZ sample were evaluated via X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and Scanning electron microscopy, and the obtained results suggested that the stability rate of the MgO-PSZ sample improved from the initial value of 81.19%–94.82% after microwave heating at 1300 °C for 1 h. As a result of the martensitic conversion of ZrO₂ material, the m-ZrO₂ diffraction peaks were suppressed at the same time. Additionally, a similar changing trend was noticed in the XRD pattern, Raman spectrum, and FT-IR spectrum, indicating a decrease in the m-ZrO₂ phase content in the microwave treated products. Furthermore, the microstructure on the surface of the microwave-sintered MgO-PSZ sample was improved in contrast to the raw MgO-PSZ sample, and became relatively more uniform and smooth. This study determined the optimal microwave heating conditions for the preparation of MgO-PSZ material with enhanced performance, and can provided as a good foundation for developing the further related research on zirconia materials preparing by microwave heating technology.

High-quality vanadium pentoxide powder is an important product of the vanadium industry and was usually prepared from ammonium polyvanadate (APV) using a roasting process combined with a drying pretreatment. Conventional hot air drying is usually used for the drying of APV, the heat transfer of which is from outside to inside thus limited the efficiency of the drying pretreatment. In the present paper, microwave heating was applied as an alternative heating method for the drying of APV because of its advantages including selective heating, high heating efficiency, low energy consumption, and green environmental protection. An experimental comparison between hot air drying and microwave drying is provided, and the results show that microwave drying is more energy-saving and faster. The drying characteristics of APV under the irradiation of microwave energy were investigated. The influences of factors including microwave power, material quality, and initial moisture content on microwave drying were studied. The results show that the microwave power, initial moisture content, and initial mass are positively proportional to the microwave drying efficiency of APV. Additionally, the Page model was robust in describing the kinetics of microwave drying and hot air drying of APV. This study provides fundamental knowledge on the microwave drying process and provides the trial for the industrial applications of microwave heating on the preparation of V₂O₅.

Partially stabilised zirconia has advantages for the applications in the metallurgical processes which have special requirements in corrosion resistance and high-temperature performance. In the present work, controllable microwave heating was used for the uniform thermal field and consequent microstructure improvement to further improve the stability of partially stabilised zirconia, which was 88.14% prepared by electric arc melting. Analyses including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy (Raman) were used to study the effect of temperature change on the phase composition and structure of the samples. After heating at temperatures of 900 °C, 1000 °C, 1100 °C, 1200 °C and 1300 °C for 1h, the stabilities of the heated product were 88.51%, 95.02%, 95.17%, 96.31% and 97.64%, respectively. From the phase transformations based on the experimental results, the discussion indicates that the martensitic transformation temperature of zirconia from m-ZrO₂ to t-ZrO₂ during the heating stage was reduced under the radiation of microwave energy.

Nanosized CeO₂–ZrO₂ powders prepared by atmospheric pressure pyrolysis were used as raw materials to prepare CeO₂–ZrO₂ ceramics using microwave sintering. The samples were characterised using bulk density measurements, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FT-IR), Raman, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The purpose was to determine the optimised microwave sintering process for CeO₂–ZrO₂ ceramics and reveal the corresponding mechanism. The results show that with a CeO₂ addition content above 5 mol%, the tetragonal phase peak appeared obviously in the sample. The results show that the tetragonal phase peak appears when the CeO₂ content is more than 5 mol%. The dopants, namely CeO₂, have reduced the solid solution’s phase transformation temperature with the assistance of microwave heating. Additionally, the grain size of the CeO₂–ZrO₂ ceramics has shown a negative relationship with Ce content at a temperature of 900 °C. The reason is that the rapid sintering due to microwave sintering and the oxygen vacancies generated by CeO₂ can effectively inhibit grain growth. The regulation mechanism on microwave sintering of CeO₂–ZrO₂ ceramic was clarified, and the technical prototype of controlled prepared CeO₂–ZrO₂ ceramics by microwave sintering was constructed.

The effects of microwave power and sample quality on microwave drying kinetics and characteristics of zirconia were studied. It is found that by increasing the microwave power and decreasing the sample mass, the surface diffusion coefficient (Deff) appears to an upward tendency. The corresponding value Deff at a sample mass of 10, 20, 30, and 40g are 1.849E-14, 2.443E-14, 3.210E-14, and 3.278E-14 m²/s, respectively. The corresponding value Deff at a microwave power of 300, 400, 500, 600, and 700W are 1.270E-14, 1.784E-14, 2.619E-14, 3.392E-14, and 4.497E-14 m²/s, respectively. Besides, the materials were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) to evaluate the changes of materials before and after drying. The results show that microwave accelerates the drying of zirconia and increases its dispersibility. The heat conduction direction of microwave drying is the same as that of moisture diffusion, which avoids being affected by heat inertia and heat transfer loss. The drying process is fast and efficient, and the microwave directly penetrates the product, avoiding the disadvantage of slow evaporation caused by the temperature gradient.

As an alternative energy source for fossil energy, use of biomass pyrolysis to reduce pyrolusite is of great significance for energy conservation, emission reduction and environmental protection. Kinetics and thermodynamics of reducing pyrolusite using biomass pyrolysis was studied using thermogravimetric analysis analysis. Five non-isothermal methods, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa, Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose, Distributed Activation Energy Model, Starink and Friedman, were employed to calculate the pyrolysis kinetics and thermodynamic parameters. The results showed that pyrolusite reduction by biomass pyrolysis can be divided into four stages: drying stage (30–175 °C), rapid pyrolysis reduction stage (175–350 °C), slow pyrolysis reduction stage (350–680 °C) and char formation stage (680–900 °C). The apparent activation energy, reaction enthalpy, Gibbs free energy and entropy change of pyrolusite reduction by biomass pyrolysis was calculated ranges from 170 to 180 kJ/mol, 164 to 174 kJ/mol, 136.97 to 137.25 kJ/mol and 45.67 to 61.91 J/mol·K, respectively. This work provides theoretical basis and practical guidance for the reduction of pyrolusite by waste corn stalk.

Vanadium slag contains high contents of vanadium and chromium with complex and dense structures, hence microwave heating instead of conventional methods is expected to destroy the dense structure and further to improve the extraction rate of vanadium and chromium, and exploring its dielectric properties is the prerequisite work. Microwave absorption properties and thermal behavior of vanadium slag were investigated. Results indicated that vanadium slag endowed excellent microwave absorption properties, with minimum εr′ value of 34.447 (F/M). Dielectric properties of vanadium slag varied with temperature, which changing trend was matched to the three stages of microwave heating characteristics identified by heating rates. Meanwhile, the changing process of dielectric properties also corresponded to the three processes of thermogravimetric characteristics: dehydration stage (30 °C-280 °C), oxidation decomposition of olivine phase and normal spinel phase (280 °C-650 °C), and oxidation decomposition of vanadium chromium spinel (650 °C-950 °C). Moreover, the maximum dielectric constant and highest microwave heating rate of vanadium slag both appeared at the temperature regime of 500 °C-550 °C, which was also the main temperature regime for oxidation decomposition of olivine phase and normal spinel phase in vanadium slag, demonstrating the appropriate process temperature for microwave heating technology to recycle vanadium slag.

Partially stabilized zirconia (PSZ) replaces the widespread applications of full stabilized zirconia (FSZ) on ceramics materials and refractories materials, attributed to its excellent properties including small coefficient of thermal expansion, low thermal conductivity and good thermal shock resistance. In this work, CaO-doped partially stabilized zirconia (CaO-PSZ) was optimizedly prepared from fused zirconia through conventional roasting. Meanwhile, the effects of roasting temperature and duration time on stability properties were explored to determine the stability parameters of the prepared CaO-PSZ. Results indicated that the zirconia stability rate synchronously improved with the decrease of roasting temperature and duration time, which was attributed to that the martensitic transformation of fused zirconia with volume change plays a toughening effect, further rendering the change of zirconia stability properties. XRD patterns verified the martensitic transformation, representing by cubic ZrO₂ phase (c-ZrO₂) in raw fused zirconia was partially transformed into monoclinic ZrO₂ phase (m-ZrO₂) at 1450 °C for 4 h. Moreover, the phase transition law of fused zirconia was revealed through SEM and EDAX characterization for the raw fused zirconia and the prepared CaO-PSZ. SEM patterns showed acicular patterns of grains and round fine particles clustered at grain boundaries, indicating that CaO stabilizer precipitated on grain boundaries and rendered the crystal structure enhanced, which the result was consistent with EDAX analysis. This work can lay a significant foundation for applications of microwave heating on the preparation of partially stabilized zirconia (PSZ) from fused zirconia.

Partially stabilized zirconia (PSZ) occupies an important application portion in ceramics materials and refractories materials. In this work, calcium oxide-partially stabilized zirconia (CaO-PSZ) ceramics were prepared from fused zirconia by microwave sintering, with its microstructure and stability properties characterized by XRD and SEM. Results indicated that the heating rate, cooling rate, quenching temperature and isothermal treatment time rendered different influence on the stability properties, which was mainly ascribed to the reversible martensitic transformation of zirconia ceramics. Additionally, a mixed-phase composed by cubic phase ZrO₂ (c-ZrO₂) and monoclinic phase ZrO₂ (m-ZrO₂) appeared after fused zirconia treated by microwave sintering at 1450 °C for 2 h, indicating the formation of CaO-PSZ ceramics, which the finding was consistent with the SEM and EDAX analysis. Meanwhile, CaO stabilizer precipitated behavior at the crystal boundary, with the formation of acicular grains and fine particles, further rendering a toughening effect to CaO-PSZ ceramics. This work can provide important theoretical and practical significance for applications of microwave sintering to prepare CaO-PSZ ceramics material, even extending further applications in functional materials and structural materials.

Smelting fine ore into a block with the lower phosphorus content before entering the furnace can achieve cleaner production and value-added efficiency for ferromanganese alloy enterprises, and microwave sintering technology shows bright application prospects in the secondary utilization of waste materials and environmental-friendly preparation of high-performance alloy materials. In this work, FeMn78C8.0 grade bulk alloy with enhanced volume density properties was efficiently prepared via an environmental-friendly microwave sintering approach, using high-carbon ferromanganese powder with low processing efficiency in factories as the raw material. Results indicate that adding certain carbon can prevent the oxidation behavior of Mn and Fe elements during the sintering process, and the qualified FeMn78C8.0 alloy can be obtained by controlling sintering temperature and duration time, with the optimum sintering conditions determined at 1168 °C for 11 min and with the alloy powder of

Exploring the dielectric properties of a material can provide guidance for applications of microwave technology to the material. In this work, dielectric properties and thermal behavior of manganese anode mud and pure MnO₂, CaSO₄ and PbSO₄ components were systematically investigated. Results indicated that manganese anode mud showed excellent responsiveness to microwaves, with εr′ value of 17.971 (F/M) at room temperature and a maximum value of 20.816 (F/M) at 150 °C, rendering it took only 5.5 min for manganese anode mud to be heated from room temperature to 1000 °C. The dielectric properties of manganese anode mud were related to its thermal behavior, mainly affected by MnO₂ component. Moreover, the heating process of manganese anode mud was divided into four stages identified by temperatures: less than 200 °C, 200 °C–700 °C, 700 °C–900 °C, greater than 900 °C, corresponding to the five stages of thermal behavior: the removal of absorption water and combined water, the decomposition reaction of Pb₂Mn₈O16, and the deoxidation reactions of PbO₂, MnO₂ and Mn3O₄. The work highlights the feasibility of processing manganese anode mud by microwave heating.

Rutile TiO₂ is widely applied as the raw material to produce titanium dioxide and titanium sponge, whereas the Cr (III) and V (V) impurities in rutile TiO₂ significantly affect the performance of related products. In the present work, the sodium carbonate decomposition treatment on Panzhihua titanium slag was attempted, to improve the preparation process of rutile TiO₂ with high crystallinity and simultaneously reduce the chromium (Cr) and vanadium (V) content as hazardous elements. Effects of sodium carbonate decomposition treatment on the crystal composition, microstructure of rutile TiO₂ were determined using XRD, SEM and Raman characterization. The recovery of Cr(III) and V(V) was achieved through leaching the roasted titanium slag by dilute sulfuric acid, with the chromium and vanadium content in the residue decreasing up to 0.03 % and 0.04 %, respectively, followed by the final product rutile TiO₂ was produced by the leaching residue calcined at 1323.15 K with a duration time of 120 min, with 85.56 % of TiO₂ grade. The work highlights the feasibility of synchronously preparing rutile TiO₂ and removing hazardous Cr (III) and V (V) impurities from titanium slag using sodium carbonate decomposition.

Partially stabilised zirconia (PSZ) ceramics have attracted much interest because of their outstanding properties. In this study, fused ZrO₂ was treated as a raw resource for the synthesis of CaO-PSZ ceramic materials through a facile sintering process. The crystal structure and thermomechanical properties of the synthesised CaO-PSZ ceramic samples were determined using XRD and SEM. The results revealed that various process parameters had different effects on the zirconia stability rate, including the temperature changing rate during the heating and cooling stages and the temperature and isothermal time during the quenching treatment; this was primarily a result of the thermodynamic characteristics of the martensitic conversion of ZrO₂ ceramics. Secondly, the martensitic conversion process was revealed by XRD patterns, expressed as the partial conversion of c-ZrO₂ to m-ZrO₂. Meanwhile, SEM-EDAX analysis highlighted the precipitation behaviour of the CaO stabiliser and the successful preparation of CaO-PSZ ceramics by sintering, represented by the gathering phenomenon of the acicular grains and particles, as the findings matched the stability rate analysis. This study can supply a sound reference for the synthesis of CaO-PSZ ceramics from fused ZrO₂.

In this paper, the preparation of rutile TiO₂ powder from titanium slag by microwave-assisted activation roasting followed by hydrochloric acid leaching was investigated. The effects of the additive Na₂CO₃ on the crystal form, cell, crystallinity, phase transformation, surface functional groups and micro-surface structure of the calcined product were systematically studied using X-ray powder diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The results confirmed that the strongest characteristic Raman bands of rutile TiO₂ and the weakest FT-IR bands of (CO₃)⁻² were found when the Na₂CO₃ mass ratio was 0.4. Accordingly, the crystallinity for the product, namely short rod structure rutile TiO₂ powder, reached its peak value of 99.21% with a corresponding average grain size of 43.5 nm. The excessive Na₂CO₃ was found to be disadvantageous for the crystallinity of the product, since it formed a coverage on the surface of titanium slag which prevented the oxidation reaction for the decomposition of anosovite.

Partially stabilized zirconia (PSZ) ceramics play a significant role as fundamental ceramics and refractory materials. In this work, a CaO-PSZ ceramics material was synthesized from fused ZrO₂ by microwave sintering. The stability properties and structural characteristics of the products were characterized via X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Results indicated that in a microwave field, the duration and sintering temperature presented similar influence trends for the stability properties of ZrO₂ ceramics materials, which the finding was assigned to the phase transformation of ZrO₂ with temperature change. In addition, following the microwave treatment of the fused zirconia sample at 1450 °C for 2.0 h, a cubic and monoclinic mixed phase was formed. These outcomes corresponded to the results from the SEM and energy dispersive X-ray (EDAX) analysis, demonstrating the successful preparation of the CaO-PSZ ceramics. The toughness of the ceramics was improved, which could be attributed to the formation of CaO-stabilizer-precipitated acicular crystals. The theoretical fundamentals and the practical cases presented in this paper are beneficial for the application of the microwave sintering technology in the synthesis of CaO-PSZ ceramics.

Recently, with the decrease in the quality of manganese resources, the efficient use of low-quality manganese ore resources has attracted widespread attention. At present, pyrite is often used as reducing agent to recover Mn(IV) in industrialization. However, the passivation of pyrite in the leaching reaction process will lead to a decreased reaction efficiency. Hence, in this study, microwave heating was applied in the reduction system in order to remove the inhibition of the passivation layer and accelerate the dissolution of pyrite, indicating an improvement in the corresponding Mn(IV) reduction efficiency. The results show that the leaching rate assisted by microwave heating was 95.07%, approximately 20% higher than that of conventional heating (75.08%), and the amount of sulfuric acid and pyrite was reduced by 14% and 20%, respectively. XPS analysis shows that there was an obvious sulfur elemental peak at 164.3 eV under traditional heating conditions, but it was absent when microwave heating was applied, and the elemental sulfur under conventional heating is 11.63%, which is higher than that under microwave heating (4.80%). Through scanning electron microscopy, it was noted that there are a large number of voids on the mineral surface under microwave heating, which can increase the solid-liquid contact area, effectively reducing the formation of the sulfur passivation layer and accelerating the dissolution of Mn (IV). In addition, the measurement of the dielectric constant of the solution mixture shows that the dielectric constant of the solution with mineral addition was increased from 36.533 (F/M) to 37.717 (F/M) and the loss tangent angle was increased from 8.61 × 10⁻³ to 9.21 × 10⁻³. It can be inferred that microwaves act directly on the mineral itself through the solution. Thus, the application of pyrite and microwave heating in the recovery of Mn(IV) is expected to effectively reduce the use of sulfuric acid, and achieve green, environmentally friendly and efficient leaching of manganese.

Traditional smelting process of manganese ore was plagued with high consume of power and coke, and spraying and slag turning accidents caused by violent decomposition of carbonates and manganese oxides in manganese ore. In the present work, the thermal decomposition mechanism and phase structures of manganese ore were systematically investigated, calcined through microwave calcination approach and characterized by XRD, SEM and EDAX. Results indicated that microwave calcination had a significantly better effect than conventional calcination for manganese ore. An increase in calcination temperature was found to present a more profound effect than calcination duration. The optimum calcination temperature was identified to be 950 °C, with the calcination duration being 30 min, and manganese ore grade increased from initial 30% to 39%–42%, with the pulverization ratio being 8%–9%. Peak intensities of Mn3O4 phase enhanced with calcination temperature increasing, and irregular cracks and pits appeared on the surface of the microwave calcined manganese ore. Meanwhile, the feasibility of decomposition reactions of manganese ore at the considered temperature regime was confirmed by thermodynamics analysis. The upgrading and modified manganese ore by microwave calcination can realize the direct smelting of the concentrate. The work proposes an efficient calcination idea for manganese ore by microwave calcination.

Exploring the dielectric properties of mineral-biomass mixtures is fundamental to the coupled application with biomass pyrolysis and microwave technology to mineral reduction. In this work, the microwave dielectric properties of five pyrolusite-biomass mixtures were measured by resonant cavity perturbation technique and the pyrolysis reduction characteristics were systematically investigated, including poplar, pine, ageratina adenophora, rapeseed shell and walnut shell. Results indicated that the dielectric properties commonalities of five mixtures with temperature represented by increasing firstly, dropping intensely and finally rising slightly, with excellent responsiveness to microwaves; which the change trend was mainly attributed to the crystal transformation of amorphous MnO₂ and pyrolusite reduction reactions by biomass pyrolysis. Meanwhile, the heating characteristics successfully matched the dielectric properties of the mixtures, and the pyrolusite reduction process by biomass can be divided into two stages: biomass pyrolysis and pyrolusite reduction. The work highlights the universal feasibility of the novel coupled method for mineral reduction.

Schistosomiasis, a disease caused by a trematode, parasitic worm, is a worldwide public health problem. In spite of great progress with regard to morbidity control, even elimination of this infection in recent decades, there are still challenges to overcome in sub-Saharan Africa and endemic areas in Southeast Asia. Regarded as one of the most successful countries with respect to schistosomiasis control, The People's Republic of China has accumulated considerable experience and learnt important lessons in various local settings that could benefit schistosomiasis control in other endemic countries. Based on an analysis of conceived strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of potential collaborative activities with regard to schistosomiasis in Africa and Asia, this article addresses the importance of collaborative efforts and explores the priorities that would be expected to facilitate the transfer of Chinese experience to low- and middle-income countries in Africa and Asia.