Phase analysis of ZrO2-SiO2 systems synthesized through Ball milling mechanical activations

Abstract

Abstract. Zircon powders have been produced from raw materials of amorphous zirconia and amorphous silica powders obtained from natural zircon sand of Kalimantan Tengah, Indonesia. Synthesis process was started with the extraction of zircon powder to produce sodium silicate solution and pure zircon powder. The amorphous zirconia and silica powders were prepared by alkali fusion and co-precipitation techniques. The powders were mixed using a planetary ball mill, followed by a calcination of various holding time of 3, 10, and 15 h. Phase characterization was done using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) technique and analysis of the diffraction data was carried out using Rietica and MAUD software. The identified phases after the calcination were zircon, tetragonal zirconia, and cristobalite. The highest zircon content was obtained in the sample calcinated for15 hours -reaching 99.66 %wt. Crystallite size analysis revealed that the samples calcinated for 3, 10, and 15 h exhibited zircon crystal size of 176 (1) nm, 191 (1) nm and 233 (1) nm respectively.

Characterization of Nigerian Zircon Sand and Its Suitability for Different Industrial Applications

“…SiO 2 is the main impurity material found in all the samples, as seen in Table 3. SiO 2 can be removed from the samples to improve the quality of the sample where necessary [75,76]. As illustrated in Table 6, some impurities are mixed with zircon to improve the sample properties.…”