Effect of CeO₂ Content on Melting Performance and Microstructure of CaO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂-MgO Refining Slag

CeO2 can be applied to refining slag to minimize the size of inclusions, speed up the deoxidization process, and adsorb Al2O3 inclusions. The impact through which CeO2 content affects slag’s melting efficiency is still uncertain. The thermal analyzer was used to measure the thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) curves of the slag melting process. According to the study results, with the increase in CeO2 content, the melting temperature of slag decreased first and then increased. The slag’s melting point fell from 1364 °C to 1324 °C and then rose to 1503 °C. XRD and SEM were used to analyze the CaO-Al2O3-SiO2-MgO-CeO2 slag’s microstructure. The mineral-phase structure of CeO2-containing refining slag was primarily composed of Ca2SiO4 and 3CaO·Al2O3, MgO, SiO2, CaO·Al2O3, and Ca8Ce6Al6O26. The proportion of 3CaO·Al2O3, CaO·Al2O3, and Ca2SiO4 decreased as the rare-earth-oxide content increased, while the proportion of Ca8Ce6Al6O26 increased. FactSage was used to estimate the equilibrium-phase compositions of slags with various compositions, and a model for predicting melting points was carried out by a linear regression model. Results were obtained through the analysis of equilibrium-phase composition and crystal structure transformation. The main reasons for the melting point decrease were the change of degree of polymerization and the decrease in contents and complete melting temperature of high-melting-point Ca3Al2O6 and Ca2SiO4 compounds. The latter increase in melting point was due to the number of Ca8Ce6Al6O26 compounds and precipitation temperature increases and the complexity of the structural-network increases