Abstract
Examination of the dissociated zircon from a plasma furnace has revealed a number of unique properties which may make it of considerable importance to the ceramic colour, refractory and metallurgical industries. The geometry of the furnace is such that some zircon grains remained unaffected, others dissociated in the solid state producing pseudomorphs after zircon, but the majority were entirely fused and through free fall from the plasma became spheroidized. These spheroids formed over 90% of the normal product. The zirconia in the bulk of the spheroids probably first crystallized in the cubic form. It formed an anhedral, polygonal grain aggregate having typical foam texture with a siliceous minor phase in the grain interstices. A few cubes of zirconia grew on some spheroid surfaces. All the zirconia was then in the monoclinic (baddeleyite) structure. The silica was isotropic and apparently amorphous but it had anomalous properties and was probably oxygen deficient. It was highly reactive, was intergrown with zirconia in the pseudomorphs and the spheroids and also formed envelopes on most of the grains. In the few milliseconds during which the material passed through the furnace it underwent a remarkably complex crystallization and cooling history.
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Evans, A.M., Williamson, J.P.H. Composition and microstructure of dissociated zircon produced in a plasma furnace. J Mater Sci 12, 779–790 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00548171
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00548171