Exploitation of ladle furnace iron slag for semiconductor borosilicate glass production

The supply consumption of ladle furnace slag (LFS) is a prominence of recent researches and is extensively considered. In this work LFS has the potential to be utilized as the main raw material for producing glass and glass-ceramics because of its chemical compositions similarities to the silicate glass materials. Three borosilicate glass samples were produced via melting - quenching technique. The three samples contained 10, 20, 30 wt % of slag waste materials, respectively. The second sample was heat treated at 625 degrees C, guiding by DTA studies, for 2, 6, 10, or 15 h. XRD studies showed traces precipitation of Ca(Mg,Al) (Si,Al)2O6 (diopside), Sodium Aluminum Silicate (NaAlSiO4), Sodium Aluminum Borate (Na2Al2B2O7) and Clinoenstatite (MgSiO3) phases. FTIR analysis demonstrated the same functional groups through glass and glass ceramics sample confirming that all prepared samples had the same structure. Ferrimagnetism property of a glass sample and its glass ceramic sample derivative was confirmed by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) analysis. Vickers microhardness and fracture toughness results indicated noticeable rising in toughness value and decreasing of hardness after using 100 g load by increasing slag percent in glass samples. The glass ceramic sample had little change, in hardness and toughness values, rather than its corresponding glass sample due to its lower crystallization behavior. The low dielectric constant values are very good indication for the availability of using these type of glass for electronic applications. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) studies indicate that manganese ions are found as MnO in both glass and glass ceramic samples.