Electronic/Ionic Properties of FexO–SiO2–CaO–Al2O3 Slags at Various Oxygen Potentials and Temperatures

Electrochemical nature of metallurgical reaction arouses more and more attentions, and the most closely related is the electrical conductivity of molten slag. The electrical conductivity of molten slag is not only an important physical property that plays a prominent role in modeling and operating the electric smelting furnace and optimizing the metallurgical process, but also important for understanding the structure of molten slags.1–10) Indeed, many researches have been conducted on investigating the electrical conductivity of molten slags. For instance, the electrical conductivities of FexO–CaO–SiO2, FexO–CaO–MgO–SiO2, FexO–CaO–SiO2–Al2O3, NixO–CaO–SiO2, and NixO– CaO–MgO–SiO2 slags had been measured and reported in published literatures. Because the electrical conductivity includes two parts, ionic conductance and electronic conductance, the estimation for both of them will be difficult. In addition, the melting point of slags is very high and the reaction of iron oxide in liquid slag with CO–CO2 gases involves the transfer of charge between the slag and the adsorbed gas species. Based on the above difficulties, the data regarding the electronic properties of FexO-bearing slags is very limited. The objective of this work was to study the electrical and electronic conductivity of FexO–CaO–SiO2–Al2O3 slags at various temperature and oxygen potentials which controlled by the ratio of CO2/CO, which will be beneficial for modeling and operating the electric smelting furnace. Electronic/Ionic Properties of FexO–SiO2–CaO–Al2O3 Slags at Various Oxygen Potentials and Temperatures