High-performance glass-ceramics based on blast and arc furnace slag

Solid industrial waste represented in blast and arc furnace slags has been utilized to prepare high-performance glass-ceramic materials, that can be used in the field of construction materials. The percentage of blast furnace and arc furnace slag in glass batches reached more than 59 % and 68 %, respectively. Several techniques were used such as differential thermal analysis, XRD, SEM, thermal expansion coefficient, and density to characterize the prepared samples. The results showed the obtaining of high-performance glass-ceramic materials consisting of diopside, gehlenite, and anorthite phases in the samples based on blast furnace slag, and that the gehlenite phase was formed at low temperatures and then turned into anorthite at high temperatures. This group was characterized by a fine-crystalline microstructure that increased with an increase in the percentage of anorthite and with an increase in temperature. The thermal expansion coefficient was ranging from 6.7785 to 7.4925 x 10-6 in the temperature range of 50-500 degrees C and the density was ranging from 2.170 to 2.960 g/cm3. While in the samples based on arc furnace slag, the diopside, alumina and para-wollastonite appeared in all samples and possessed a thermal expansion coefficient ranging from 7.1305 to 7.6953 x 10-6, a fine-grained microstructure and a density ranging from 3.019 to 2.904 g/cm3 were also acquired.