Grinding a powder mixture of talc and MgCO
3 was conducted under dry (in air) and wet (with water) conditions to investigate the effects of these conditions on the formation of forsterite in sintered bodies from the ground products.
Dry grinding caused size reduction in the initial stage, followed by the aggregation of fine particles due to mechanical activation. This operation produced homogeneous mixture with structural change into amorphous state. The homogeneous mixture leads to acceleration of solid state reaction on its firing. On the contrary, wet grinding reduced the particle size in the mixture, but the crystal structure was maintained even in a prolonged grinding period. This is the main reason that different phases of forsterite are formed in the sintered bodies. Consequently, dry grinding is more advantageous than wet grinding in terms of forsterite formation in a body sintered at relative low temperatures.
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