Diopside-the prospective compound of ceramics

Diopside (CaMg[Si/sub 2/O/sub 6/]) is a natural crystalline mineral of the calcium-magnesium-silicate class. Calcium and magnesium oxides are well known as additives improving processes of sintering due to their influence on linkage strength of glass-phase, forming of crystal phase, etc. Also, diopside being a natural compound it is cheaper then additives of chemical nature and traditional compounds. The aforesaid allowed us to try this mineral as a compound of ceramic composition. For the investigation diopside was entered in porcelain composition in amounts from 0 up to 100 % mass. The testing has shown diopside in amount 0.5-5 % appears as a mineralizing additive promoting sintering, reducing temperature, increasing strength of an article and its whiteness. The presence of diopside lowers the mullite sintering temperature. On entering 5-10% of diopside in ceramic crystalline structure there appears a new phase-anorthite (CaO/sup ./Al/sub 2/O/sub 3//sup ./2SiO/sub 2/). At amounts 10-20% of diopside anorthite becomes the main crystalline phase of ceramic. 20-50%-2 crystalline phases (diopside and anorthite) have already existed in ceramic. Thus the use of diopside in ceramic compositions allows to improve many properties of the produced articles, to decrease the production costs and also to increase quality of production.