A study of cordierite ceramics synthesis from serpentine tailing and kaolin tailing

Cordierite ceramics was synthesized using a composition prepared by the mixture of three different materials: waste serpentine mine tailing (WST), waste kaolin mine tailing (WKT) and alumina. The formation of cordierite was achieved with the solid-state sintering reactions at 1350oC for 3 h. The synthesized cordierite ceramics was characterized by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), thermal analysis (TG-DTA), and SEM-EDS (Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive Spectrometer). The XRD analysis results showed the cordierite with typical rhombic system as a major phase, and its compositions consisted of O, Al, Si and Mg by means of SEM-EDS.