Tailoring of magnesium aluminum titanate based ceramics from aluminum dross

Abstract

Magnesium aluminum titanate (Mg0.3Al1.4Ti1.3O5 and MgAl8Ti6O25) “MAT” based ceramics were successfully prepared by reaction sintering at a temperature of 1300°C for 6h starting from aluminum dross waste and rutile ore powders. Different mixtures of dross-(0–60wt%) rutile were prepared. The obtained ceramic composites were characterized by XRD and FE-SEM. Physical and mechanical properties of MAT based ceramics were also investigated as well as the linear thermal expansion. XRD data illustrated that the solid solutions of composition Mg0.3Al1.4Ti1.3O5 and MgAl8Ti6O25 were initially formed in the specimen containing 10% rutile (R). Afterward, their amount increased with further addition of rutile up to 60%. The best values of densification parameters (≈2.76g/cm3 bulk density and ≈12.46% apparent porosity) were recorded for specimen containing 20% rutile. In contrast, 50% and 60% R added samples, which are mainly composed of Mg0.3Al1.4Ti1.3O5, MgAl8Ti6O25 and traces of TiO2 exhibited density of 2.31g/cm3 and 2.5g/cm3, respectively. Moreover, the obtained samples present thermal stability even at high temperatures. No decomposition was observed over a range of temperature of RT-1200°C. In addition, the TECs of the obtained samples have lower values than those of AT ceramics. As a consequence, the solid state sintering of aluminum dross waste and rutile ore can be considered as a promising way to produce a new advanced ceramic material based on MAT. Also, using this waste has two intrinsic impacts. One over the nature by reusing this waste and the second on production cost.