Aluminum titanate based ceramics from aluminum sludge waste

This work aims at obtaining aluminum titanate-based ceramics (Al2TiO5: AT) composites from industrial wastes. Al-sludge waste and rutile ore were used as rich sources of alumina and titania instead of pure materials. Sludge-(0-40 wt%) rutile mixtures were mixed, formed and fired at 1350 °C for various times. Phase composition, microstructure, densification, mechanical and thermal behaviors of the obtained AT composites have been investigated. Complete conversion of the starting materials to AT with bulk density of 3.199 g/cm3, compressive strength and modulus of rupture of 326.425 MPa and 30.84 MPa, respectively and very low CTE (−0.927*10−6 K−1) were achieved by firing the sludge-(30 wt%) rutile at 1350 °C for 4 h. These results suggest that the obtained AT-ceramics from Al-sludge waste-rutile ore are a promising and an ecofriendly route.