Recycling of Blast Furnace Slag and Fluorite Tailings into Diopside-Based Glass-Ceramics with Various Nucleating Agents' Addition

Diopside-based glass-ceramics are successfully produced by recycling blast furnace slag and fluorite tailing with the addition of supplementary elements such as TiO2, Fe2O3 and Cr2O3 as nucleation agents, using a conventional melting method. The effects of various nucleating agents on the phase components and structure of the prepared glass-ceramics were evaluated by a differential scanning calorimeter, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope-energy disperse spectrometer methods to determine the optimal dosage of nucleating agents. The results show that, in the preparation of diopside-based glass-ceramics, the suitable percentages of blast furnace and fluorite tailing are 55% and 45%, and the recommended composite nucleating agents consist of 1.5% Cr2O3, 2% TiO2 and 3% Fe2O3. Heat treatment was conducted at a nucleation temperature of 720 & DEG;C and a crystallization temperature of 920 & DEG;C, and the nucleation and crystallization durations were 1.0 h and 1.5 h, respectively. Under the abovementioned parameters, the obtained diopside-based glass-ceramics displayed a Vickers hardness of 7.12 GPa, density of 2.95 g & BULL;cm(-3), water absorption of 0.02%, acid resistance of 0.23% and alkali resistance of 0.02%.</p>