Study on preparation of water-retaining foam ceramics from vanadium-titanium magnetite tailings

Herein water-retaining foam ceramics have been successfully fabricated by high-temperature sintering using vanadium-titanium magnetite tailings (VTMT) and waste glass as major raw materials. Meanwhile, the effects of VTMT content and SiC content on the properties of foam ceramics were investigated. The results show that with the increase of the content of VTMT, the bulk density and compressive strength of the material increased, and the average pore size decreased gradually. When the addition amount of VTMT was 50 wt%, the water absorption of the material appeared the extreme value. When the additive amount of SiC was 0.3 wt%, the pores in the material were evenly distributed with an average pore size of approximately 2.93 mm. Finally, the optimum sample was formed from 50.0 wt% VTMT, 50.0 wt% waste glass, 3.0 wt% quartz sand, 0.3 wt% SiC and 3.0 wt% Na3PO4 which sintered at 1040 °C. The obtained samples had a bulk density of 0.26 g/cm3, water absorption of 56.5%, and compressive strength of 0.68 MPa. The microstructure and crystal composition of the material were studied by means of SEM and XRD. The results showed that the water-retaining foam ceramic was composed of a three-dimensional structure, which was favorable for water storage. The main crystals of the material included wollastonite, feldspar, diopside, and ilmenite.