Kinetics of the medium-temperature reduction of copper chromite with hydrogen

The static volumetric method was used to study the kinetics of copper chromite CuCr2O4 reduction with hydrogen at 50-80 kPa and 498, 523 and 580 K. The rate of copper chromite reduction is maximal initially and decreases monotonically with time. This observation suggests that the reduction is not a topochemical process. The apparent activation energy of the reaction equals initially 107 kJ/mole. The results obtained argue for a particular mechanism of the copper chromite reduction via redox substitution of hydrogen for copper in the chromite and, therefore, agree with earlier data obtained by various structural and adsorption methods. Specific features of the reduction mechanism are discussed.