Characteristics of Anorthite-Pyroxene Ceramics Made from Hot-Poured Steelmaking Slag

© 2016, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society. Steelmaking slag is an alkaline byproduct generated from the steelmaking process. It consists mainly of oxides of calcium, iron, silicon, magnesium, and aluminum. It has a volumetric production in the steelmaking industry which has made a great impact on environment remediation. In this study, anorthite-pyroxene ceramic was prepared with hot-poured steelmaking slag, kaolin, and quartz with a sintering process. The ceramic products can be well sintered by heating at 1200°C, but they melted at 1300°C. The major mineral phases were anorthite, pyroxene, and spinel when sintering at 1150°C, while the characteristic peaks of belite, alite, and quartz in raw materials disappeared. The major mineral components of the ceramic become anorthite and pyroxene at 1200°C. The additional mixed wollastonite was involved in a sintering reaction when the temperature increased to 1200°C. The newly crystalized grains were uniformly formed and distributed