Preparing Microcrystalline Glass Board with Ceramic Sintering Method from Industrial Waste Slag
Abstract
Industrial waste slag is a problem that developing countries have been facing for a long time. An effective way to solve it is to dispose of, reutilize, and recycle these slag. In this paper, the ceramic sintering method is used to reutilize and recycle the industrial waste slag and to prepare microcrystalline glass boards. The microcrystalline glass boards have been tried and the results show impressive performance in physical, mechanical, thermal and acid resistance properties. In addition, the X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope (SEM) results show that particles of microcrystalline glass board present compact and uniform structure, with excellent performance and properties. The results of this paper provides a firm theoretical foundation for the utilization of industrial waste slag and a great economic value, which has important implications for resource utilization.
Keywords Industrial waste slag; Ceramic sintering; Microcrystalline glass board
Introduction
Industrial waste slag is a type of slag generated when industrial production process is on the manufacture of minerals, metal alloys, and other materials. Despite the many advantages of slag, it has become a serious environmental problem because of its high mineral content and the potential of releasing hazardous compounds into the environment. Industrial waste slag not only occupies land resources but also pollutes the environment, thus it has become a key factor limiting the growth of developing countries. Therefore, it has become an urgent need to explore effective methods for solving the problem of industrial waste slag.
To effectively solve this problem, enterprises and scientific research institutes have adopted a series of methods, such as reuse, recycling, and artificial mineralization. An effective way to recovery and utilization of industrial waste slag is to prepare materials with it through a sintering process. Sintering is a kind of thermal process in which particles are bonded into larger objects that can be used to fabricate products with certain properties and structures. This method has been widely used to obtain materials such as ceramics, metals, and glass with different properties. For example, it can be used to obtain different structural materials (such as glass fiber board and plastic board) or products with certain performance (such as radiation shielding) [1]. Therefore, in order to recover and utiilize industrial waste slag, ceramic sintering method is used to prepare microcrystalline glass boards.
Experimental Process
Materials
The raw material of this experiment is industrial waste slag collected from a local iron and steel plant. The slag was mixed with a certain amount of quartz powder and some boron oxide and manganese oxide and mixed uniformly. The quartz powder and boron oxide served as flux and coloring agent, respectively.
Experiments
The mixed powder of industrial waste slag, quartz powder, and boron oxide were pressed in cold isostatic pressing (CIP) machine into certain size and shape preforms. The preforms were sintered in an electric furnace with a temperature of 1100°C. After sintering, the microcrystalline glass boards were obtained.
Results and Discussion
Physical and Mechanical Properties
The physical and mechanical properties of the boards produced in this experiment were tested. The results showed that the boards have excellent performance in terms of wear resistance, impact resistance, and compressive strength. The overall quality of the boards is within the range of quality defined by relevant national standards.
Thermal and Acid Resistance Properties
The thermal and acid resistance properties of the boards were also tested. The results indicated that the performance of the boards was greatly improved in terms of thermal shock resistance, thermal stability, and acid resistance. The variation in tensile strength under different temperature and acid conditions was significantly reduced.
Structure of Microcrystalline Glass Board
The microstructure of the sintered board is composed of quartz, ferrous oxides, calcium aluminium silicate, and other secondary components, which are bonded together by sintering. The results of X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope (SEM) showed a compact and uniform structure. The microcrystalline glass board thus gained high strength and excellent acid resistance properties.
Conclusion
This paper carried out research on industrial waste slag and the process of making microcrystalline glass boards with the ceramic sintering method. The results show that the microcrystalline glass boards have excellent physical and mechanical properties, with great acid resistance and thermal shock resistance. The microstructure of the sintered board is composed of quartz, ferrous oxides, calcium aluminum silicate and other secondary components, which are effectively bonded together by sintering. The results of this paper provide a firm theoretical basis for the effective utilization of industrial waste slag and also provide a great economic value, thus having important implications for resource utilization.
