STUDY OF PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGHLY DISPERSED ELECTROCORUNDUM

Electrocorundum is a refractory, chemically resistant, superhard material based on aluminum oxide. Electrocorundum is an artificially synthesized synthetic corundum obtained by melting bauxite in high-power electric arc furnaces with subsequent crystallization of the melt. In this work, the main parameters of highly dispersed electrocorundum of the Rusal F1000 and Technoceramics F1000 were investigated. The particle sizes were determined, FTIR spectroscopic analyses were carried out, and the dependences of the ζ-potential on the pH value of the dispersion medium of the studied samples were measured. Based on the results of FTIR spectroscopy, it follows that the positions of the absorption bands at 452,50 – 647,48 cm-1 indicate the presence of stretching vibrations of the Al-O bond and belong to electrocorundum particles. The results of optical microscopy showed that the size of electrocorundum particles varies from 2-14 μm. According to the results of electrophoretic light scattering for electrocorundum suspensions with different pH values of the dispersion medium, it was determined that the electrocorundum particles have a positive charge sign at pH from 1 to 6, and a negative sign at pH > 6. The obtained results show that the grains of the studied samples of white electrocorundum have sharp edges and good self-sharpening properties.