Abstract
In order to investigate the phenomenon that the affecting mechanism of high-titanium vanadium-titanium magnetite is caused by separate TiO2 or by CaTiO3 formed from TiO2 and CaO, calcium ferrite was synthetized by pure reagents of Fe2O3 and CaO, and the effect of TiO2 and CaTiO3 on the formation mechanism of titanium calcium ferrite (FCT) was researched. Different samples were sintered at the temperatures of 1023~1423 K for different time under air atmosphere based on thermodynamics calculations with Factsage 7.0. The phase transformation and microstructure changes in sintered samples were examined through different characterization means including X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope-energy disperse spectroscopy. It is found that the formation process of calcium ferrite can be mainly divided into two stages. The synthesized product is Ca2Fe2O5 with the reaction “Fe2O3 (s) + 2CaO (s) = Ca2Fe2O5 (s)” between Fe2O3 and CaO at 1023~1223 K in the former stage, and the predominant product is CaFe2O4 with the reaction “Ca2Fe2O5 (s) + Fe2O3 (s) = 2CaFe2O4 (s)” between Ca2Fe2O5 and Fe2O3 at 1223~1423 K in the latter stage, in which the reaction rate is accelerated especially at 1423 K. It is observed that CaTiO3 increases with increasing the temperature. However, the solid solution of Ti element in calcium ferrite is greatly difficult to realize and the reaction between TiO2 and calcium ferrite is not an effective way to generate FCT. It is also observed that the amount of Fe element in the phase boundary of CaTiO3 and FCT increases with the extension of the thermal insulation time. FCT is predominantly formed through the solid solution of Fe component in CaTiO3, and the main reaction is “Fe2O3 (s) + CaTiO3 (s) = FCT (s)”.
Vanadium-titanium magnetite, rich in iron, titanium, vanadium, etc, has significant comprehensive utilization value and is used widely in the blast furnace iron-making and latter vanadium-extracting industry in China so fa
For ordinary iron ores, it is commonly affirmed that the strength increasing of iron ore sinters has great relations with the generation of calcium ferrite, and calcium ferrite theory provides theoretical basis for the production of modern high basicity sinters with good qualit
High-titanium vanadium-titanium magnetite ores have relatively far higher titanium contents compared with ordinary vanadium-titanium magnetit
According to the theory of calcium ferrite, researchers have done lots of work focusing on the optimization of sinters for ordinary iron ores. Ding et al have studied the formation mechanism of silicon-ferrite of calcium (SFC) by solid-state reactions in order to understand the process of SiO2 involved in the formation of complex silico-ferrites of calcium and aluminu
In this study, the synthesized process of calcium ferrite was first studied by pure reagents of Fe2O3 and CaO, and the effect of TiO2 and CaTiO3 on the formation mechanism of FCT was further investigated. It is expected to provide theoretical guidance for vanadium-titanium magnetite sinter, especially high-titanium vanadium-titanium magnetite sinter.
The pure reagents of Fe2O3, TiO2 and CaO, provided by Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd, were adopted as the raw materials. The raw materials were weighed according to the ingredient scheme in

Fig.1 Heating curve of sintering for different samples
In this study, the sintered samples were ground to 0.05 mm in the grinding machine for X-ray diffraction (X-ray diffraction) analysis by X'pert pro (Panalytical, Almelo, the Netherlands) with Cu Kα radiation, and sanded and polished to a smooth surface for SEM examination and EDS analysis (scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectros-copy, Ultra Plus; Carl Zeiss GmbH, Jena, Germany). XRD, SEM and EDS were used for the mineral phase analysis, the microscopic morphology examination and micro-area com-ponent investigation, respectively.
Solid reaction is the most vital approach for the formation of FC, and the conditions of the solid reaction determine the phase types.

Fig.2 XRD patterns of sample 1# (51wt%Fe2O3-49wt%CaO) sin-tered from 1023 K to 1423 K for 2 h under air atmosphere
Fe2O3 (s)+2CaO (s)=Ca2Fe2O5 (s),
Δ | (1) |
The value of diffraction peak of Ca2Fe2O5 increases obvi-ously with increasing the temperature, and some relatively weak diffraction peaks of Ca2Fe2O5 (C2F) appear once again when the temperature increases to 1223 K, from which it is also indicated that the content of Ca2Fe2O5 increases as the temperature increases. Furthermore, the phase of CaFe2O4 appears at 1123 K and the content of CaFe2O4 begins to increase at 1223 K observably from XRD results. Ding et a

Fig.3 SEM images of microscopic structures for sample 1# (51wt%Fe2O3-49wt%CaO) sintered at 1023 K (a, b) and 1423 K (c, d) for 2 h under air atmosphere
Ca2Fe2O5 (s)+Fe2O3 (s)=2CaFe2O4 (s),
Δ | (2) |
Fig.

Fig.4 EDS analysis results of FC phases for sample 1# sintered at 1023 K (a) and 1423 K (b)
Through above analyses, it can be concluded that the formation of calcium ferrites is dynamic, and this process is mainly divided into three steps. The first step is the reaction between Fe2O3 and CaO at 1023 K, and the reaction product is Ca2Fe2O5, as shown in
CaO (s)+Fe2O3 (s)=CaFe2O4 (s),
Δ | (3) |
And the third reaction rate is accelerated when the temperature increases to 1423 K. Temperature is a very important factor in the generating process of FC. With the increase of temperature, the thermodynamic conditions are improved actively, and the solid reaction rate is accelerated. It is a pivotal cause of temperature influencing the reaction process.

Fig.5 XRD patterns of samples 2# sintered at 1023~1423 K for 2 h under air atmosphere
Besides, Ca2Fe2O5 (C2F) phase content increases to some extent, which is consistent with the previous description. The increase of CaTiO3 is in accordance with previous study on the relationship between the contents of CaTiO3 and tempe-ratur
CaO (s)+TiO2 (s)=CaTiO3 (s),
Δ | (4) |
Ca2Fe2O5 (s)+TiO2 (s)=CaTiO3 (s)+CaFe2O4 (s),
Δ | (5) |
From thermodynamics calculation,

Fig.6 SEM images of samples 2# sintered at different temperatures for 2 h under air atmosphere: (a) 1023 K, (b) 1123 K, (c) 1223 K, (d) 1323 K, and (e) 1423 K

Fig.7 SEM image (a) and EDS analysis of area A (b) and area B (c) in Fig.7a for the sample sintered at 1223 K for 2 h under air atmosphere

Fig.8 XRD patterns of FC sintered at 1473 K for 4 h under air atmosphere

Fig.9 XRD pattern of the reaction product between FC and TiO2 carried out at 1423 K for 2 h

Fig.10 EDS analyses of area A (a), area B (b) and area C (c) for the reaction between FC and TiO2

Fig.11 Thermodynamics data for different reactions
In order to further determine how calcium ferrite is invol-ved in the generating of FCT, reaction experiments between calcium ferrite and TiO2 were carried out at 1423 K for 2 h, in which calcium ferrite was obtained by solid reaction at 1473 K for 4 h under air atmosphere, according to XRD pattern in
are caused by the reaction between TiO2 and CaO, and partial FCT phases in the experiment are caused by the reaction between Fe2O3, TiO2 and CaO. The source of Ca2Fe2O5 (C2F) phase comes from the reaction between Fe2O3 and CaO.
TiO2 (s)+CaFe2O4 (s)=CaTiO3 (s)+Fe2O3 (s),
Δ | (6) |

In order to understand clearly the role of CaTiO3 in the generating process of FCT, the reaction between CT and Fe2O3 was carried out at 1423 K for different time.

Fig.12 XRD patterns for reaction between CT and Fe2O3 at 1423 K for 30, 60 and 120 min

The SEM images of microscopic structures of different samples that were sintered at 1423 K for 30, 60 and 120 min are shown in Fig.13 and EDS results of FCT phases (areas A, B and C) are shown in Fig.14. It can be found that the amount of Fe element in FCT gradually increases with extension of thermal insulation time. Similarly, EDS line scanning analysis in

Fig.15 EDS line scanning results of the phase boundary between CT and FCT at 1423 K for 30 min (a) and 120 min (b)
The above analysis shows that the crucial way to generate FCT is the solid solution of Fe in CaTiO3 (CT). It is probably as a result of the fact that Fe occupies the position of Ti in crystal lattice in the formation of FCT. The reaction process between CaTiO3 and Fe2O3 is given by
Fe2O3 (s) + CaTiO3 (s) = FCT (s) | (7) |
1) The formation process of calcium ferrite (FC) can be divided into two stages. The reaction product is Ca2Fe2O5 between Fe2O3 and CaO at 1023~1223 K in the former stage. The predominant product is CaFe2O4 for the reaction between Ca2Fe2O5 and Fe2O3 at 1223~1423 K in the latter stage, in which the reaction rate is accelerated especially at 1423 K.
2) The reaction between TiO2 and FC is not an effective way to generate titanium calcium ferrite (FCT) at 1423 K because the solid solution of Ti element in FC is greatly difficult to realize. TiO2 is mainly involved in reaction TiO2 (s) + CaFe2O4 (s) = CaTiO3 (s) + Fe2O3 (s) at 1423 K.
3) The main reason for the formation of FCT is the solid solution of Fe element in CaTiO3, and the main reaction is that FCT is generated by Fe2O3 and CaTiO3.
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