Ceramic tiles derived from coal fly ash: Preparation and mechanical characterization

Coal fly ash (CFA) accounts for a large fraction of the solid waste produced in China. Hence, there is an urgent need for the effective utilization of CFA, for example, as a raw material for ceramics production. In this study, clay- and feldspar-like materials fabricated by alkali activation pre-treatment of CFA were mixed with untreated CFA (regarded as a quartz-like material) and sintered to prepare fully ash-based ceramic tiles. The obtained tiles exhibited excellent sintering properties, e.g., low firing temperature and a wide sintering range; further, they showed better green strength (due to hydrogen bonding) and post-sintering performance (due to fluxing and mullite skeleton effects) than ceramic tiles produced exclusively from untreated CFA. The fully ash-based ceramic tiles sintered at 1100 °C exhibited optimal post-sintering properties (bulk density, 2.5 g/cm³; rupture modulus, 50.1 MPa; and water absorption, 0%). Thus, the proposed method is well suited for preparing a novel kind of ceramic tiles completely derived from CFA, highlighting its importance in the field of fly ash ceramics.