Study of Porosity on Titania Slag Obtained by Conventional Sintering and Thermal Plasma Process

Abstract

This article investigates the development of porosity in titania-rich slag obtained by sintering via conventional and thermal plasma heating at 1000°C in inert atmosphere. The holder in the plasma reactor acted as the discharge anode confined within a hollow graphite cathode. Quantitative evaluation of the porosity in the conventionally sintered and plasma-sintered titania-rich slag was performed via pycnometry. Specifically, the physical dimension and morphology of the pores were characterized according to the area fraction, mean diameter, shape factor, and elongation factor. Under both conventional and thermal plasma heating conditions, porosity developed on the surface of titania-rich slag. The titania-rich slag obtained by two processes showed different porosity features in terms of the morphology and porosity. A lower porosity was observed in the plasma-sintered sample when compared with that obtained via conventional heating.