Preparation and characterization of partially vitrified ceramic material

In this contribution, we presented a systematical investigation and prepared partially vitrified ceramic foam materials using polymetallic ore tailings (POTs) and other waste as raw materials. More importantly, six different POTs were evaluated in terms of bloating behavior, besides, the effects of sintering temperature and fly ash (FA) content on the structure, physical-mechanical properties and chemical stability were investigated. Our results revealed that among all selected POTs, the BT2 sample exhibits the best bloating ability due to the formation of appropriate liquid content, which is favorable for forming stable pore structure. Increased sintering temperature can accelerate the liquid phase formation and the increase in pore size, resulting in higher porosity and lower bulk density. And the pore structure varies with the addition of FA relatively uniform pore size distribution, high porosity and high compressive strength can be well achieved in this way. Besides, the partial vitrification of ceramic foam materials contributes to an increase in chemical stability while also reducing the risk of environmental pollutions. Here, an excellent performance combination (low bulk density at 0.63 g/cm3, high porosity at 73.6%, high compressive strength at 9.1 MPa) can be obtained in an optimized condition (15 wt% FA additions, sintering temperature at 1120 °C). The finding in this work, we believe, would provide guidance for rational utilization industrial wastes, which based on the synergistic complementarity effect between chemical components.