2009) 4(22 المجلد مجلة ابن الھیثم للعلوم الصرفة والتطبیقیة تحضیر ودراسة خواص البالطات ومونة الدرز السیرامیكیة المقاومة كیمیائیا للسوائل القاعدیة **،حنان كاظم حسون المیالي** ،أیسر جمعة ابراهیم *سعد بدري حسون فرید معة التكنولوجیةقســـم هندسة المواد ،الجا* قسم الفیزیاء، كلیة التربیة ابن الهیثم، جامعة بغداد** خالصــةال خواص بالطات ومونة الدرز السیرامیكیة المقاومة كیمیائیا في هذه الدراســـة نظرا لشحـــة النشـــر ت ودرستحضر فرة اة هي خامات متولمعالسیرامیكیة المستوقد كانت معظم المواد . العلمي في هذا الموضوع في حقول المواد السیرامیكیة .فرة تجاریاامحلیا والباقي مواد متو د . قیست الخواص الفیزیائیة والمیكانیكیة للبالطات والمونة المحضرة التي بینت انها تنافس مواد البناء التقلیدیة وقـــ تبار من البالطات والمونة الى محلول اجري فحص اختبار المقاومة الكیمیائیة للسوائل القاعدیة بتعریض نماذج االخ )10%NaOH (وبینـــت النتائج عدم وجود اشـــارات الى تأثر نماذج االختبار للبالطات والمونة بالهجوم . مدة اسبوعین .الكیمیائي ـــراقنوقشـــت النتائج ورســـمت أهـــم االستنتاجـــات وذلك لتشجیــــع انشـــاء صناعـــة من هذا النوع في العـ .ـ IBN AL- HAITHAM J. FO R PURE & APPL. SC I. VOL. 22 (4 ) 2009 Physical & Mechanical Properties of Chemical Resistance Ceramic Tiles and Mortar to Alkali Solution S.B. H. Farid*, Ayser J. Ibrahim**, Hanan K. H. Al-Mayaly** *Departme nt of Mate rials Engineering, Unive rsity of Technology **Departme nt of Physics, I bn Al-Haitham College of Education, Unive rsity of Baghdad Abstract Chemical r esistance cer amic tiles and mortar to alkali solution are p repared and characterized in this st udy due to the lack of this kind of p ublications in ceramic literature. M ost of the utilized materials are read ily available r aw materials and the other materials are available commercially. Physical and mechanical p rop erties are measured and indicate that the p rep ared ceramic tile and mortars are comp etitive to traditional buildin g materials. Chemical r esistance test against alkali solution is a lso p erformed by subjecting test sp ecimens to 10%NaOH liquid for two weeks. The results give no indication of chemical att ack to sp ecimens of ceramic tile and mortar. The results are discussed and imp ortant conclusions are drawn to encourage creating such kind of indust ry in IRAQ. Introduction One of the major ap p lications of cer amics is the chemical resist ance. In fact, chemical resistivity is a const ant concern of materials research and development. The prime factors for feasibility study for a ceramic p roduction p lant like ceramic tiles is the availability and accessibility of raw materials, the cost of such materials, economic p roduction p lant and achiev ability of the demanded p rop erties. Accordingly, chemical resistance is a p rime factor for ceramic tiles co mposed of cheaper raw materials [1-2]. Ceramic tiles and mortars are classified as “Traditional Ceramics”; in which ceramics raw materials like silica, k aolin, f eldsp ars…etc are comp osing this typ e of ceramics. In contrary , advanced cer amics is gener ally sy nthesized through comp lex chemical p rocess st arting from raw material and finalizin g in the advanced cer amic materials. Thus, advanced ceramics is not used in app lications like tile because it consumes much material that draws clear cost boundaries. The selection of raw materials p lus the p reparation processes exp ress the traditional ceramics “Technological Root” [1,3,4]. The main comp onent of the traditional ceramic p roduct is usually the Silica (- SiO2) usually comp osing 97-98% of natural sand with kaolin, alkali and alkaline o xides as the remaind er. When the silica is exp osed to liquid of Alkali effect, e. g. water contains alkali ions R + like NaOH, t he attack can be of the form below: SiOSi  Na + OH   SiOH + SiO  Na + The rate of the above reaction depends on the concentration of alk ali ions in the liqu id. If there is enough exp osure to solution of Alkali effects, the p rocess of silica n etwork destruction can continue leading to gr adually breakdown in the silica n etwork, i.e. enhance the chance for material f ailure [4-5]. The source of silica in ceramic tiles can be from direct addition of silica to t he starting recipe or as a result of firing of kaolin y ieldin g mullite and silica. There are two strategies which h elp in enhancin g resistance to Alkali solution.  The first is includin g the cer amic with oxides of basic effects like alkaline or alkalin e earths or increasing the content of t hose oxides. Here, the fluorsp ar CaF p lays an IBN AL- HAITHAM J. FO R PURE & APPL. SC I. VOL. 22 (4 ) 2009 imp ortant role due to that it absorbs oxy gen from the environment comp osing the alkalin e earth CaO and releases the flour into the matrix. The flour p lay s t wo imp ortant roles, the first, is that it exerts st rong basic effects that p rotect the matrix from Alkali att acks which is very useful in fabricating ceramics tiles, the second is that it enhances adhering effects when used in composition of ceramic mortar.  The second st rategy is enhancin g d ensification dur ing sinterin g of the ceramic by choosing p rop er sintering time and temp erature. That is to minimize the porosity of the ceramic tile which led to less p enetration of solution, and as result, minimizing the chemical att ack. The above mentioned st rategies are used in the resear ch, in addition to usin g chemically resistant filler, namely sty rene butadiene liquid r esin SBR in the sy nthesis of the mortar. This addition is intended to enclose the p orosity of the mortar to reduce liquid p enetration and consequently the chemical attach. Experime ntal part A. Prepa ration of Ce ramic Tile: The st arting raw materials that are comp osing the ceramic tile are choosen according to p ercentages shown in table 1. The soda lime glass was brou ght from Al-Taji glass manufacturing site. The soda lime glass p owder is added to reduce the sintering temp erature of the ceramic tile. All the p owder raw materials ar e sieved by 50m sieve before weighing and mixing. 15 ml of tap water was added to each 100g of the p owder blend. M ixing thorough ly and compacting in steel dies. The ap p lied compacting p ressure is 100n/cm 2 . Subsequently , the comp acts are sintered in 1000°C for 2hrs. Density , p orosity and water absorp tion are measured according to ASTM C373-88 [6]. The mechanical p rop erties, namely , Charpy imp act test and comp ression strength are also measured according to ASTM C368-88 [7]. B. Preparation of Ce ramic Mortar: To p rep are the mortar, three solid materials are used, namely , the flint, fluoro sodium silicate and soda lime glass. The p owders are sieved by 50m sieve before weigh ing and mixing with the liquid co mponent. T he liquid comp onent is t he sty rene butadiene rubber. The p ercentages of the mortar blend ar e shown in table 2. Up to 15 ml of tap water can be added to the blend to achieve agood mixin g. Aft er the mixing p rocess, the mortar is applied to the ceramic tiles to p roduce comp lete tile and mortar sy stem. The mortar is also cast ed in steel dies and left to dry . After one week, the dried mortar cast s are subjected to Charpy imp act test and compression test. Both of the ceramic tile and mortar are subjected to chemical resistance test according to ASTM C650-97[8]. Each sp ecimen is washed in distilled water, dried in 120°C for 24hrs and the dry weights are recorded. Then each sp ecimen is immersed in 10% NaOH solution in sep arate beakers. The sp ecimens are left in that solution for 2 we eks. Then, each sp ecimen again is washed and dried. Visual insp ection is app lied to detect any affected area of the sp ecimens by the Alkali solution. Also, a second dry weight is recorded for the sp ecimens to detect any change of weight that indicates visually undetectable effect of the alkali solution on the sp ecimens. IBN AL- HAITHAM J. FO R PURE & APPL. SC I. VOL. 22 (4 ) 2009 Results and Discussion Table 3 disp lay density , p orosity and water absorption of the p rep ared ceramic tile and mortar. The water absorption of both the prep ared ceramic tile and mortar is undetectable to three significant di gits. These results indicate that t he sintering p rocess app lied to t he ceramic t ile was able to close all the op en p orosity which should be opp osing p enetration of the Alkali liquid and minimizing the chance for chemical att ack. As well, app lying SBR to the mortar also succeeds to close the open porosity thus p rotects the mortar from Alkali liquid penetration and att ack. The mechan ical p rop erties of the ceramic tile and mortar are shown in table 4. Sp ecimens 1×1cm base and 4cm height are used to p erform the mechanical test s. It’s clear that the measured mechan ical p rop erties ceramic tile are sup erior to that of the traditional building brick. That makes the prepared alkali resistance ceramic tiles feasible in buildin g r eservoirs for alkali solution. The mortar also has b ett er mechanical p rop erties as compared to that of t he traditional building brick. Its p rop erties are, to some extent, lower than that of the ceramic tile, which is accep table due to cast ables which generally have lower mechan ical prop erties as compared to that of the sintered ceramic of comp arable composition. Finally, the results of chemical resistance to alkali solution are to be discussed. The visual insp ection did not show any deterioration of sp ecimen faces for both the ceramic tile and mortar. The only visual detectable effect is some co lorin g at t he upp er face of ceramic tile only as seen in figure 1. The origin of this coloring is bett er exp lained in terms of the p recipitation of minor impurities in the NaOH liquid on the upp er face of the tile. Table 5 shows the weight difference of the cer amic tile and mortar before and after subjecting to chemical resistance test against alkali liquid. The table shows that the weight difference is in forth significant digit which reflects no obvious chemical att ach of the alkali liquid for both t he ceramic tile and mortar. Conclusions 1. Good mechanical p rop erties are achieved for the p rep ared alkali resistant ceramic tile and mortar compared to that of traditional buildin g br ick. 2. Two strategies are used to enhance the cer amic tile and mortar against chemical attach by alkali solution,  The first includes materials of alk ali effect in the composition of the ceramic tile and mortar;  The second st rategy are to close the op en p orosity of the ceramic tile by aprop er choice of sinterin g time and temp erature for the cer amic tile and includin g SBR in the composition of the mortar Re ferences 1. Liever, E.; Klischat, H-J.and Wirsing, H.( 2008) Refr actory shap ed body with increased alkali resistance, USPT O Patent App lication 20080261799, 2. Lyckfeldt O. and Rundgren K.(1997–1999) Advanced R efractories For Biofuels,p 19 in Ceramic Develop ment Program Research by Swedish Academic Inst itut e, (1997) 3. Angermann, J.;M eyer, B. and Horlbeck, W.(2002) Examinations of Chemical R esistance and Thermal Beh avior of Ceramic Filter M aterials for Hot -Gas Cleaning, 5th International Sy mposium on Gas Cleanin g at High Temp erature, The National Ener gy Technology Laboratory (NETL), USA, p .p . 17-20, 4. Snavely , W. H.; Stapleton, R. E. and Krause, A. J., June (1968) alkali metal resistant IBN AL- HAITHAM J. FO R PURE & APPL. SC I. VOL. 22 (4 ) 2009 electrical dev ices, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Technical Rep ort APAPL-TR- 68-61 5. Büchel, G.; Buhr, A.; Gier isch, D. and Racher, R.(2005) Alkali- and CO-resist ance of dense calcium h exalu minate Bonite”, 48 Internationales Feuerfest-Kolloquium, p.p . 208- 214, 6. The American Society for Testing and M aterials, Ap ril (2005) ASTM C373-88R99 Standard Test M ethod for Water Absorp tion, Bulk Density, App arent Porosity, and App arent Sp ecific Gravity of Fired White-ware Products”, 15:02 7. The American Society for Testing and M aterials, Ap ril (2005) “ASTM C0368-88R99 M ethod for Impact Resistance of Ceramic Tableware”, 15:02 8. The American Society for Testing and M aterials, Ap ril (2005) ASTM C650-97 Standard Test M ethod for resistance of ceramic tile to chemical substances”, 15:02,. Fig. (1): The ceramic tile shows some coloring effect on its face after immersing in 10% NaO H solution for two weeks. IBN AL- HAITHAM J. FO R PURE & APPL. SC I. VOL. 22 (4 ) 2009 Table (1): Composition of the ceramic tile recipe No. Raw material wt % 1 Duekhla kaolin 60 2 Urdhuma flint (silica) 30 3 Soda lime glass 5 4 Fluorsp ar (CaF) 5 Table (2): Composition of the ceramic Mortar recipe No. Raw material wt % 1 Urdhuma flint 35 2 Soda lime glass 30 3 Fluoro Sodium Silicate 10 4 Sodium Silicate p enta hy drate 20 5 SBR 5 Table (3): Physical propertie s of the ceramic tile and mortar Bulk Density g/cm 3 Porosity (op en+closed) % Water absorption % Tile 2.105 10.42 0.000 M ortar 1.951 16.98 0.000 Table (4): The mechani cal propertie s of the Tile and Mortar Charpy Impact Ener gy [Joule] Compression Test [MPa] Tile 0.98 171 M ortar 0.83 42.45 Building Brick 0.64 28.25 Table (5): weight diffe rence of the ceramic tile and mortar before and after che mical resistance test Weight before test g Weight after test g % Weigh loss g Tile 12.4343 12.4341 0.0016 M ortar 13.0031 13.0028 0.0023