New horizons for the structural characterization of stainless steel slags by X-ray powder diffraction

The Rietveld method was used to reliably interpret severely Superimposed X-ray diffraction patterns of 'reduced AOD slags'. These slags were therniochemically treated in an arc furnace at BAM to recover valuable alloying metals and to convert the residual rnineral fraction of the slag into ecologically desirable products. It is shown that recent methodological progress in XRD enables the interpretation ot'X-ray diffraction patterns of slags by the Rietveld technique, thereby replacing earlier apprehension of the method being generally inapplicable to these materials due to the complexity of the analytical problem.