I have some really dirty fe2o3, with little bits of grass and everything. To purify it, I thought I might dissolve it in hcl, to get as much iron chloride as I can in solution. Then I'd filter it to remove most of the contaminants. Next I'd add naoh or koh to make their respective chloride in solution, as well as an Fe(OH)3 precipitate. The Fe(OH)3 would be filtered out and rinsed several times to remove residual solubles. Then I'd dry out the stuff, and bake it into Fe2O3. Any suggestions? Improvements? Criticisms? Ramblings and equations about why it would/wouldn't work? I'll take 'em all. Thanks.

If you add a little NH4Cl before you add the NaOH then any Zn ,Cu, Ni and a few others will stay in solution so you will end up with purer Fe(OH)3

If you add a little NH4Cl before you add the NaOH then any Zn ,Cu, Ni and a few others will stay in solution so you will end up with purer Fe(OH)3

 

Clever... Thanks for the tip, I'll try it. It was mainly organic impurities I was worried about, but I'll try it anyways. I have WAY to much ammonium chloride. You're not worried about wether or not I'm going to make thermite? That's unlike you, John. So you do think this will work, right? Seems kineticly fine enough to me, but I might as well ask the esteemed resident expert, right?