Electron-optical analyses of the phases in a portland cement clinker, with some observations on the calculation of quantitative phase composition

Abstract

The four major phases in a typical wet-process clinker have been analyzed by energy-dispersive X-ray analysis in the scanning electron microscope. The contents of minor oxides in the phases were: alite, 2 %; belite, 5 %; aluminate, 12 %; ferrite, 10 %. The composition of the ferrite phase was near to Ca 2AlFe 0·6Mg 0·15Ti 0·05O 5, and similar compositions have been observed in other clinkers. A further modification of Yamaguchi and Takagi's (1969) modification of the Bogue calculation is used to compute the quantitative phase composition and the results compared with those obtained by other methods. The possibility of using such a method more generally is discussed.