Anorthite is widely spread in nature and belongs to the plagioclase group of rock forming minerals. Plagioclases represent a continuous series of solid solutions between anorthite (CaO.Al 2 O 3 .2SiO 2 ) and albite (Na 2 O.Al 2 O 3 .6SiO 2 ) and form an enormous group of triclinic minerals. harabi52@gmail.com, Zaiou_21@yahoo.fr, guechia@yahoo.fr, semouni84@gmail.com, kanour17@yahoo.fr, foughali_lazhar@yahoo.fr, zouaisouheila@yahoo.fr, mezahif@yahoo.fr, guerfatiha@gmail.com Mineralogically, anorthite is reported as a chemically weak mineral, resulting in a basic reaction when dissolved into boiling water, while strong acidic and basic solutions dissolve it. Glass-ceramics and ceramics with crystalline anorthite are mainly used in electrical, thermo-mechanical and water resistance applications [1][2][3][4]. Anorthite is an important technical ceramic material that has good physical properties, such as very low thermal expansion coefficient, low dielectric constant and loss, good thermal shock resistance, and high creep resistance at high
AbstractGood quality ceramics costs a lot that has limited their use in developing countries. This work was devoted to prepare low-cost and good quality anorthite based ceramics. The proposed composition was 80 wt% kaolin (DD2 type) and 20 wt% calcium oxide (CaO). The choice of these raw materials was dictated by their natural abundance coupled with a modified milling system, as another interesting advantage. Previous studies have shown that a simple vibratory multidirectional milling system using bimodal distribution of highly resistant ceramic milling elements has been successfully applied for obtaining fine powders. The influence of the relatively lower sintering temperature, ranging from 800 to 1100 °C, on the porosity and the average pore size (APS) have been investigated. The APS and the porosity values of samples sintered at 950 °C were about 1 μm and 4%, respectively. The best Vickers microhardness and 3-point bending strength values for these sintered samples, using this proposed milling system, were 7.1 GPa and 203 MPa, respectively. Finally, the crystalline phase evolution during heat treatment was investigated by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy techniques.