Glass ceramic of high hardness and fracture toughness developed from iron-rich wastes

A study has been carried out on the feasibility of using high iron content wastes, generated during steel making, as a raw material for the production of glass ceramic. The iron-rich wastes were mixed and melted in different proportions with soda-lime glass cullet and sand. The devitrification of the parent glasses produced from the different mixtures was investigated using differential thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. The mechanical properties of the glass-ceramic were assessed by hardness and indentation fracture toughness measurement. A glass ceramic with mixture of 60 wt pct iron-rich wastes, 25 wt pct sand, and 15 wt pct glass cullet exhibited the best combination of properties, namely, hardness 7.9 GPa and fracture toughness 3.75 MPa·m 1/2, for the sake of containing magnetite in marked dendritic morphology. These new hard glass ceramics are candidate materials for wear resistant tiles and paving for heavy industrial floors.