Magneto-optical Properties of Iron-bulk Metallic Glasses Sustainably Produced from Iron-rich Sand Sludge

Abstract

A large amount of sand sludge (SS) from rivers polluted with heavy metals is continuously dredged and often dumped into landfills, resulting in environmental pollution of soil and water. This work examines the feasibility of the utilization of iron-enriched SS from dredged polluted rivers to produce Fe-based bulk metallic glasses (Fe-BMG). Fe-BMG was prepared from SS by melt-quenching technique, and their magnetic and photochromic properties were studied. The chemical composition of the Fe-BMG was determined by X-ray fluorescence (XRF). The structural properties have been analyzed using the Raman spectroscopy (RS), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) spectroscopy. XRF results shows that Fe-BMG contains an iron proportion of 38.8% (wt.) as the hematite (\(\alpha\)-Fe2O3), and magnetite (Fe3O4) phases. The Raman “fingerprints” of \(\alpha\)-Fe2O3 and Fe3O4 were identified at 1330 cm−1, and 300-600 cm-1, respectively. The measured saturation magnetization of Fe-BMG samples is 3.0 emu/g at 60 kOe. A UV-VIS analysis of the Fe-BMG exposed to sunlight simulator reveals an enhanced transmission of light in the 400-700 cm-1 region. These findings confirmed the successful conversion of the hazardous SS into Fe-BMG with promising magneto-optical characteristics for a wide variety of technological applications.