Porous Ceramics from Iron Tailings Using Triethanolamine Dodecyl Sulfate as a Foaming Agent and Xanthan Gum as a...

Anshan iron tailings were used as the primary raw material to efficiently and comprehensively utilize secondary resources from iron tailings. Triethanolamine dodecyl sulfate (TLS) served as the foaming agent, and xanthan gum (XG) as the curing agent. The iron tailings porous ceramics were then prepared through ball milling, foaming, gel injection molding, and sintering. Experiments were conducted to explore the relationships and patterns among process factors, such as the amount of foaming agent, as well as the microscopic structure and physical properties of the iron tailings porous ceramics. The results showed that at a sintering temperature of 1150 °C with 2% foaming agent, the porous ceramics made from iron tailings achieved the most uniform pore-size distribution and the best overall performance. Under these conditions, the bulk density of the ceramic was 0.839 g/cm³, the apparent porosity was 62.42%, and the compressive strength was 8.11 MPa. Compared with previously reported iron-tailings-based ceramics, the obtained materials exhibit superior performance, indicating promising potential for lightweight structural applications.