Effect of Sintering Temperature on Structure and Properties of Iron Tailing Porous Ceramics

Tailing porous ceramics with iron tailings as the raw material were prepared by foam-gelcasting method and pressureless sintering process. The effect of sintering temperature on porosity, bulk density, compressive strength, phase composition, microstructure and pore size distribution was investigated. Results show that as sintering temperature increases from 1070 degrees C to 1120 degrees C, porosity declines from 89% to 72%, the volume density and compressive strength increase from 0.29 g/cm(3) and 0.46 MPa to 0.76 g/cm(3) and 6.19 MPa, respectively. When the sintering temperature is 1120 degrees C, the diffraction peak of quartz becomes wider and weaker. It means that quartz is molten in liquid phase to increase the density and mechanical properties of tailing porous ceramics. The pore size is uniformly distributed between 22 mu m to 78 mu m.