Anna Stepien

The impact of barium sulfate on the microstructural and mechanical properties of autoclaved silicate products

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Abstract

Last decades are a special example of the technical and technological development in the construction industry, what is dictated among others by the durability of produced materials and the way of acquiring raw materials for producing etc., and farther by their storing. Moreover, in recent years particular attention has been paid to the naturalness and also harmlessness of materials applied in the construction industry with regard to the protection of people and environment. A protection against the ionizing radiation is also an important aspect due to the harmfulness of radio-elements appearing in nature with the various activity and to the risk of the breakdown of nuclear power plants. Silicates are obtained from a mixture of ground quartz sand and calx with a small amount of water. They emerge as a result of the hydrothermal treatment conducted under high pressure and at a specified temperature (app. 203 °C). Addition of barium aggregate to the silicate mass leads to increase in endurance features of the final product by limiting free spaces in modified silicate. Applying the barium aggregate with the grain size 0–2 mm at the production stage also had an effect on the changes in the internal structure of the element and the improvement of its macro- and microstructural properties. Introduced aggregate led to increase in bulk density of the silicate product.

Keywords: Silicates; barium aggregate; protection; X-ray diffractometry (XRD); Microstructural.