There is a high iron content in nickel slag that mainly exists in the fayalite phase. Basic oxide can destroy the stable structure of fayalite which is beneficial to the treatment and comprehensive utilization of nickel slag. The research was based on the composition of the raw nickel slag, taking the CaO-SiO2-FeO-MgO system as the object and CaO as a modifier. The effect of basicity on the melting characteristics, viscosity and structure of the CaO-SiO2-FeO-MgO system was studied. The relationship between the viscosity and structure of the CaO-SiO2-FeO-MgO system was also explored. The results show as follows: (1) When the basicity is lower than 0.90, the primary phase of the slag system is olivine phase. When the basicity is greater than 0.90, the primary phase of the slag system transforms into monoxide. When the basicity is 0.90, olivine and monoxide precipitate together as the temperature continues to decrease. At the same time, the liquidus temperature, softening temperature, hemispherical temperature, and flow temperature all reach the lowest value. (2) With the increase of basicity, the critical viscosity temperature of the CaO-SiO2-FeO-MgO system decreases first and then increases. Critical viscosity temperature is the lowest at the basicity of 0.90, which is 1295 °C. (3) When the slag system is heterogeneous, the viscosity of the molten slag increases rapidly because of the quantity of solid phase precipitated from the CaO-SiO2-FeO-MgO system. (4) When the slag system is in a homogeneous liquid phase, the molar fraction of O0 decreases with the increase of basicity and the mole fraction of O−, and O2− increases continuously at the basicity of 0.38~1.50. The silicate network structure is gradually depolymerized into simple monomers, resulting in the degree of polymerization, and the viscosity, being reduced. The mole fraction of different kinds of oxygen atoms is converged to a constant value when the basicity is above 1.20.
The utilization of nickel slag has attracted much attention due to its high-content of valuable elements. As a part of these efforts, this work focuses on whether magnetite crystals, obtained from nickel slag via molten oxidation, magnetic separation, and ball-milling can be used as a microwave absorber. The composition, morphology, microstructure, magnetic properties, and microwave absorption performance were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and vector network analysis (VNA). The results reveal that the magnetite crystals exhibit excellent microwave absorption properties because of the synergistic action between dielectric loss and magnetic loss. The minimum reflection loss (RL) of the particles obtained after 6 h ball-milling reaches −34.0 dB at 16.72 GHz with thickness of 5 mm. The effective frequency bandwidth (RL ≤ −10 dB) is 4.8–5.4 GHz and 15.9–17.6 GHz. Interfacial polarization of the particles could play a crucial role in improving absorbing properties because several components contained in the particles can dissipate electromagnetic wave effectively. The current study could show great potential in the preparation of magnetite crystals and utilization of nickel slag.
In order to reduce the amount of fluorite during the steelmaking process for environmental protection, it is essential to investigate the fluorine-free slag system. Thus, high-basicity CaO–SiO2–FeOx–MgO slag with B2O3 content from 0% to 15% was designed, and its melting characteristics and viscosity were investigated. The influence of B2O3 content on the phase diagram of the slag system was calculated using FactSage 7.3, and the break temperature was determined from the curves of temperature-dependent viscosity. The results show that, with the increase in B2O3 content, the melting characteristics of the CaO–SiO2–FeOx–MgO/B2O3 slag system, including liquidus temperature, flow temperature, softening temperature, and hemispheric temperature, all decreased; the main phase of the slag system transformed from Ca2SiO4 into borosilicate, and finally into borate; the viscous flow activation energy reduced from 690 kJ to 130 kJ; the break temperature reduced from 1590 °C to 1160 °C. Furthermore, the melting characteristics and the break temperature of the slag system with 5% and 8% B2O3 content were found to be the closest to the values of fluorine-containing steel slag.
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