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

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 1200A degrees C, but they melted at 1300A degrees C. The major mineral phases were anorthite, pyroxene, and spinel when sintering at 1150A degrees 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 1200A degrees C. The additional mixed wollastonite was involved in a sintering reaction when the temperature increased to 1200A degrees C. The newly crystalized grains were uniformly formed and distributed.