Controllable
preparation of a waste-derived glass-ceramics provides
a promising and environmentally safe strategy for industrial residue
recycling by immobilizing hazardous heavy metals in its amorphous-crystal
multiphase structure. A modified two-step method was developed for
treatment of Zn- and Cr-containing wastes to enhance the economic
feasibility and reduce the risk of heavy metal evaporation. ZnO and
Cr2O3 with various Zn or Cr contents (1, 5,
and 10 wt %) were added after vitrifying the CaO(25 wt %)-Al2O3(20 wt %)-SiO2(55 wt %) system, followed
by crystallization at 1000 and 1100 °C, respectively. Various
qualitative and quantitative characterizations including TG-DSC, XRD,
Rietveld refinement analysis of XRD patterns, XPS, and HRTEM were
performed to demonstrate the immobilization mechanism of Zn and Cr
species. Meanwhile, an artificial neural network (ANN) model was trained
and optimized for simulation and prediction of heavy metal immobilization
in glass-ceramics. The results demonstrated that the predicted results
obtained from the well-trained ANN model fitted well with the experimental
results. Both Zn and Cr were immobilized in glass-ceramics efficiently
with immobilization efficiencies of 86.5–97.6% for Zn and 99.3–99.9%
for Cr. Zn preferred to be immobilized in glass-ceramics by chemical
stabilization. Around 50 wt % of Zn was incorporated in Ca2ZnSi2O7 crystals, while the rest was present
in the glass matrix as dissolved Zn2+ ions. However, the
most dominant immobilization mechanism of Cr was physical encapsulation,
with 82 wt % of Cr embedded in the glass matrix of glass-ceramics
as Cr2O3 crystals. The sensitive analysis suggests
that the heavy metal content played the most important role, while
crystallization temperature contributed the least for heavy metal
immobilization. Among various inherent natures of heavy metals, the
atomic radius was the most critical in determining immobilization
efficiency of heavy metals. The results provide a comprehensive guidance
for the preparation of heavy-metal-incorporated glass-ceramics and
further enhancement of heavy metal immobilization effects.