Preparation and characterization of red porcelain tiles with hematite tailings

The study deals with using hematite tailings instead of traditional fluxes to prepare red porcelain tiles, together with kaolin and quartz sand. Considering the firing temperature and tailings addition amount, the properties, phase compositions and microstructure of final fired samples were studied. Results indicated that the firing temperature and tailings proportion significantly influenced the porcelain tiles properties. The suitable formulation should be addition of hematite tailings 55–65 wt.%, kaolin 25 wt.% and quartz sand 10–20 wt.%, and fired at 1200 °C for 30 min, the obtained porcelain tiles were well conformed to Chinese standard specifications in Ceramic Tiles (GB/T4100-2006). The tiles featured good degree of sintering, high crystallinity with main mineral phases as quartz, hematite, cristobalite, mullite and anorthite, and presented in dense glassy and crystalline phase solid solutions with low porosity, which contributed to the densification of porcelain tiles.