Preparation of Insoluble Zirconate from Egyptian Zircon via Alkali Fusion Process to Enhancement Al Alloy Performance

Document Type : Original Article

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Nuclear Material Authority

Abstract

In this paper, Egyptian zircon was decomposed through the alkali fusion process to obtain the insoluble product (sodium zirconate) for developing the performance of Al alloy. For this purpose, Egyptian zircon was mixed with NaOH at specific ratios on the stainless steel crucible for starting the opening process. Several parameters such as NaOH /Zircon ratios, fusion temperature, and fusion time were investigated to obtain the optimum conditions to prepare sodium zirconate. Next the Al alloy was melted and sodium zirconate particles were added while stirring. Characterization of zircon opening products was performed by X-ray Diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy, and Energy Distributed X-ray. Also, the effect of insoluble product of the zircon opening product on the performance of Al alloy was evaluated via hardness and wear resistance tests. The results demonstrate that the optimum alkali fusion parameters to obtain high recovery of sodium zirconate were as follows; 1.5 NaOH/ZrSiO4 ratio, 650 ◦C as fusion temperature, and 3 hr as fusion time. On the other hand, adding 5% of sodium zirconate to Al molten metal leads to increasing in the hardness value and the wear resistance over than the value of Al alloy.

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History

  • Receive Date: 16 January 2023
  • Revise Date: 07 February 2023
  • Accept Date: 09 February 2023

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