Effect of milling on reduction behavior of blue dust

Abstract

Blue dust is a high grade soft hematite material containing 96.14% Fe2O3. It is transformed into wustite when subjected to planetary ball milling in the presence of iron powder as a reducing reagent. The phase evolution, particle size distribution, and morphology of particles during milling are studied for various samples collected at various milling times by using X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Mossbauer spectrometer and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). XRD and Mossbauer studies reveal that the blue dust is transformed into wustite after 50 h of milling. Vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) study shows that the sample obtained after 50 h of milling exhibits high magnetic behavior compared to the original blue dust sample. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.