Experimental Techniques for Investigating Calcium Ferrite Slags at Metallic Copper Saturation and Application to the Systems Cu2O-Fe2O3 and Cu2O-CaO at Metallic Copper Saturation

Phase equilibrium Studies have been carried out on the systems Cu2O-FeO-Fe2O3 and Cu2O-CaO at metallic copper saturation. It has been shown that, using synthetic primary phase materials as substrates to support the liquid slag, equilibration at high temperature is possible without contamination of the samples. Rapid quenching of the liquid has been achieved so that it is retained as an amorphous phase on cooling, even in this silica-free system. Through the use of an improved methodology and electron probe X-ray microanalysis (EPMA), accurate. objective, and repeatable phase equilibrium data can be obtained. Experimental data for the pseudo-binary Cu2O-Fe2O3 and Cu2O-CaO systems, at metallic copper saturation, are presented.