Cerámica y Vidrio Reaction Sintering of Mexican Dolomite – Zircon Mixtures

The present work has been conducted aiming to develop additional phase [Ca3SiO5, Ca2SiO4 and/or Ca3Mg(SiO4)2]-bonded magnesia refractory materials via reaction sintering of dolomite-zircon mixtures, employing a Mexican dolomite containing an excess of 3 wt % of CaCO3. The study was based on phase equilibrium data extracted from the quaternary system CaO – MgO – SiO2 – ZrO2, to put it more precisely, base on the projection from the MgO-apex of the liquidus surface of the primary crystallization volume of MgO onto the opposite face of the above mentioned quaternary system. The refractory materials designed within this system were obtained by attrition milling, followed by cold isostatic pressing and high temperature reaction sintering. All initial and produced materials were characterized by ICP-AES, XRF, XRD, SEM-EDX, DTA and TG analyses. The results obtained indicated that reaction sintering of dolomite-zircon mixtures is an interesting route to produce MgO-CaZrO3-additional phase refractory materials