ALUMINA-BASED PHOSPHATE CEMENT

This paper is about alumina based acid-base phosphate cement (PC) composites fabricated with both mineral wollastonite and alumina powders. We studied the compressive strength of the composites, crystalline phases present by x-ray diffraction and Weibull statistics for all processing temperatures. The compressive strength showed a complex correlation between alumina and calcium silicate content, with the highest compressive strength value for samples with 40wt% of alumina. We identified grown and residual phosphate phases, and discussed their mechanics of formation. Furthermore, it was found that we can reduce the setting time by increasing the alumina content or increasing the alumina mean grain size.