Abstract
Potassium geopolymer (KGP) ceramics are synthesized by the molten salt method. Metakaolin changes to a potassium geopolymer through a reaction with potassium silicate at 80 °C/24 h. Potassium geopolymer, with a silicon to aluminum (Si/Al) molar ratio of 2, turns into a leucite ceramic in molten potassium salt (KCl) at 900 °C/6 h. X-Ray Diffraction analysis of the KGP treated by molten KCl salt shows the amorphous phase change to leucite crystal phase. A scanning electron microscope image of sintered KGP proves that the grain size of the leucite crystal decreases with soaking time. Compared with solid state sintering, liquid molten salt sintering KGP can be more easily formed into dense ceramics at lower temperatures.
Highlights
A geopolymer is a special, high performance inorganic polymer material with an amorphous structure [1,2]
Leucite ceramics are useful for materials with high accessional values, such as dental porcelains, refractories, and structural ceramic materials [5,6,7,8,9]
This analyses shows that the KCl contributes to the generation of leucite
Summary
A geopolymer is a special, high performance inorganic polymer material with an amorphous structure [1,2]. Because of the special inorganic poly-condensation of three-dimensional oxide network structure, geopolymers have an excellent fire resistance, low cost, are environmentally friendly and have great thermal properties [3]. Because of these properties KGP is an important geopolymer. It can be converted to tetragonal or cubic leucite (K2 O·Al2 O3 ·4SiO2 ) ceramics after being treated at high temperatures [4]. Due to large capillary forces acting on capillary channels during the high temperature treatment, surface cracking of the monolithic geopolymer ceramics results [10]
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