The office statement indicates that the innovative method involves burning the ash in two stages to produce silicon carbide powder first and then obtaining the ceramic using the spark plasma sintering method.
In this study, the researchers used coal ash from the operation of the Revtinskaya thermal power plant in the Sverdlovsk region.
The results showed that unlike previous experiments conducted in recent years, the researchers obtained high-quality products. According to them, given the valuable properties of the ceramics they obtained, they can be widely used because they are economical.
The process involved dissolving more than 85 percent of the aluminum in the ash using a mixture of sulfuric acid and ammonium bisulfate, and heating it well above its boiling point in a closed tank. The filtration residue served as a feedstock for subsequent combustion. The researchers then mixed the residue with carbon and burned it in a kiln to produce silicon carbide powder. During the experiment, the researchers determined the effect of temperature and the mass of the reducing agent on the formation of silicon, iron, and titanium carbides. They later used the powder to produce experimental ceramic samples.
According to the inventors, the spark plasma sintering method allowed to obtain a prototype of a ceramic sample in just five minutes. The study of the basic mechanical properties of the ceramic sample (hardness and strength) showed that they are completely identical to industrial samples.
Source: TASS
#Russian #scientists #turn #coal #ash #ceramics
2024-07-14 17:43:00
