Effect of Al2O3 on the Viscosity and Structure of CaO-SiO2-MgO-Al2O3-FetO Slags

The present paper provided a fundamental investigation on the effect of Al2O3 on the viscosity and structure of CaO-SiO2-MgO-Al2O3-FetO slags for the purpose of efficiently recycling the valuable elements from the steelmaking slags. The results show that the viscosity of CaO-SiO2-Al2O3-MgO-FetO slags slightly increases with increasing Al2O3 content. The degree of the polymerization (DOP) of quenched slags, determined from Raman spectra and magic angle spinning-nuclear magnetic resonance, is also found to increase with increasing Al2O3 content. It can be deduced that the increasing DOP can promote the formation of gehlenite phase (Ca2Al2SiO7), thus facilitating the formation of higher phosphorous (or vanadium) contained solid solution (n'Ca2SiO4 center dot Ca-3((P or V)O-4)(2)). As Al2O3 content increases up to a specific value, the charge compensating ions which present near [AlO4]-tetrahedra and [FeO4]-tetrahedra are not fully supplied due to the scarcity of Ca2+. In this case, the existing Fe3+ in the melt cannot completely form [FeO4]-tetrahedra and part of Fe3+ would form [FeO6]-octahedra to substitute Ca2+ to modify the slags. (C) The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International 2015