Influence of Alumina nano particles addition on the properties of wall tiles containing slag

The use of waste materials and industrial wastes in order to protect the environment and also to reduce costs has been considered. In this study, first, the use of slag, a waste of the steel industry, on the properties of the wall tile body was investigated. For this purpose, different percentages of slag were added to the tile body and physical properties such as density, percentage of shrinkage after sintering, open porosity, bending strength and microstructure were investigated. According to the results, the use of slag leads to the formation of anorthite and wollastonite phases in the tile body. The results showed that slag up to 30 wt% leads to increased density, reduced shrinkage and improved bending strength of tiles. The bending strength of the tile body increased from 23.6 MPa to 33.8 MPa for a body containing 30 wt% slag. The strength improvement can be attributed to the lower porosity, the formation of needle-shaped anorthite and wollastonite phases by using slag. Then, the effect of alumina nanoparticles in the amounts of 1, 2 and 3 wt% on the properties of the tile body containing 30 wt% slag was investigated. The addition of nano-alumina particles increased the bending strength of the tile body and the bending strength for the body containing 3 wt% reached 39.5 MPa. The increase in strength can be related to the higher percentage of anorthite phase in the presence of nano-alumina.