Exploring the shielding capabilities and mechanical properties of glass ceramic tiles derived from cupola cast iron slag

Cast iron cupola slag is a solid industrial waste produced by iron industries, which contains SiO₂, CaO, Fe₂O₃, Al₂O₃ etc. The cast iron cupola slag was converted into sintered tiles prepared by simple powder metallurgy method by adding a 2–3 wt% of binder (sodium meta hexa phosphate) with a sintering temperature of 900–1100 °C. Several tests including particle size distribution (PSD), SEM analysis, Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectra, and XRD analysis examine the characteristics and microstructure of the materials. The apparent density, water absorption, hardness, flexural strength and linear attenuation coefficient were also tested. The cast iron slag contains 40–50% SiO₂, which is suitable for making Glass ceramic tiles. During the thermal processing, some complex oxides such as wollastonite (CaSiO₃) and anorthite (CaAl₂Si₂O₈) were formed, which increased the mechanical properties such as flexural strength ∼ 29.72 N/mm2, of the Glass ceramic sintered tiles. To calculate the X-ray linear attenuation coefficients (µ) of the prepared samples, various energy ranges of 75–125 kVp were applied. In this case of 30 ± 2 mm thick samples, the X-ray attenuation comparable was 1.21 mm thick lead sheet at 100 kVp. This innovative process not only repurposed the cast iron cupola slag effectively but also enhanced the shielding properties of the resulting X-ray shielding tiles.