Investigation of mechanochemical reactions between zircon (ZrSiO4) and alkaline earth metal oxides

N. J. Welham*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    17 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Alkaline earth metal oxides have been mechanically milled with zircon for up to 200 hours with the aim of forming zirconia or zirconates, either within the mill or during subsequent annealing at up to 1200 °C. At a 11 molar ratio, all samples reacted during milling, forming zirconia and a metal silicate. Increased fractions of metal oxides resulted in reaction of the zircon to zirconates and metal silicates, except for magnesium, which formed zirconia and magnesium silicate. The zirconia formed was the metastable tetragonal form, which reverted to the low-temperature monoclinic form after heating to 1200 °C. The powders milled for 200 hours were leached for 6 hours at 25 °C in 18 pet HC1; their solubility was very high, ranging from 88 to 92 pet for the lower oxide ratio (except for magnesium) and >95 pet for all powders of the higher oxide ratio; the only remaining phase after leaching was zircon. Milling zircon in the absence of metal oxide showed a solubility of 9 pet, confirming that reaction occurred during milling.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)603-610
    Number of pages8
    JournalMetallurgical and Materials Transactions B: Process Metallurgy and Materials Processing Science
    Volume29
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1998

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