Preparation and properties of sintered glass-ceramics containing Au-Cu tailing waste

Au-Cu tailings (ACTs) are gold mining industry by-products that require further treatment before disposal to alleviate polluting the environment such as landfill, plant cover or using material production. This study focuses on the preparation and properties of a material called glass-ceramics that was prepared by a melting method with ACT, as raw materials, and without additional nucleating agents. The nucleation and crystallization temperature of the base glasses were determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The microstructure and properties of the glass-ceramics were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), a bending strength test, a microhardness test, linear thermal expansion coefficient, and a wear-and-tear test, thereby obtaining the best optimum formula composition and the process parameters. The results show that the utilization of ACT can be up to 77.56 wt.%, which can make good use of ACT and develop decorated glass-ceramics with perfect properties. Two crystalline phases are diopside ((Mg0.6Fe0.2Al0.2 Ca(Si1.5Al0.5)O-6) and hedenbergite (Ca(Fe0.821Al0.179) (SiAl0.822Fe0.178O6)) which are formed in the glass-ceramic samples. The obtained glass-ceramics show the properties of maximum bending strength of 209.6 MPa, density of 3.23 g/cm(3), hardness of 1008.7 kgf/mm(2) and wear resistance of 0.039 mg/g. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.