Solid-state synthesis of pure ye’elimite

Abstract

Ye’elimite is formed during the production of sulfoaluminate cement. In this article, the orthorhombic ye’elimite formation, the optimal synthesis conditions and the microstructural evolution during synthesis, by solid-state reaction from pure oxide raw materials, is investigated. The phase assemblage was substantially affected by temperature and duration of sintering. Making reference to Rietveld quantitative analysis results, optimal solid-state synthesis conditions of ye’elimite was 1300 °C for 3 h. During ye’elimite synthesis, significant gas releases were observed at different stages of firing using TGA coupled with mass-spectrometer. The gases are the product of carbonate decomposition, gypsum dehydration and sulfate decomposition from the unreacted anhydrite and the formed ye’elimite. Based on the present work, it emerges that a key strategy for forming ye’elimite with a high purity is to compensate sulfate decomposition by the addition of a slight excess of CaSO4 before repeating the firing cycle at optimal conditions. Finally, the porosity was investigated using Archimedes principle measurements compared to BSE-image analysis. It shows the difficulty to achieve dense sintered ye’elimite because of the high decomposition gas releases during the firing process.