Novel preparation of glass ceramics from amorphized tungsten tailings

Glass ceramics were successfully prepared from amorphized tungsten tailings after magnetic separation. Samples were characterized by DSC, XRD, SEM, and FTIR. The results demonstrated the main crystalline phases of the as-prepared glass ceramics were gehlenite (Ca2Al2SiO7) and hedenbergite (CaFeSi2O6), and the amount and size of the crystalline phases increased with increase of crystallization temperature. The morphology of crystalline grains varied from tiny granular to plate-like crystals. The crystalline phases would melt again, and hedenbergite would partially transform into gehlenite at a crystallization temperature of 1100 °C. Based on the kinetics analysis for crystallite growth, the activation energy (Eα) and Avrami constant (n) were calculated as 381.16 kJ/mol and 2.04, respectively, indicating that the crystallization mechanism followed two-dimensional growth. The glass ceramics from tungsten tailings at 1050 °C showed proper crystal structure and high performance, which could be considered for potential applications in building materials.