Micro Nano Structured Steel Slag Materials A Sustainable Approach Towards Environmental Applications

Abstract

Steel slag is an industrial by-product and is generated during the manufacturing of steel. Progressive nature of urbanization and industrialization, the production of steel increases and hence the by-product steel slag. Induction furnace steel slag is a secondary steel melting furnace slag where the scraps and other iron products are melted via induction heating in the presence of additives to manufacture steel. The floating lighter material in the melt, which is poured out and separated, is called slag . In the presented research, induction furnace steel slag has been utilized for various environmental applications such as gamma radiation shielding studies, paver blocks and slag foams manufacturing, ocean acidification studies (impact on pH of sea water), heavy metal hexavalent chromium removal, cationic dye methylene blue removal and antibacterial activity of selective bacterial species. newline newlineSteel slag materials were characterized using X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), E energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), ICP-OES (Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy), XRF (X- ray Fluorescence) and FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) techniques. The presence of various metal oxides such as iron oxide, alumina, manganese oxide, calcium oxide along with metalloid silica and other minor elements makes the materials suitable for the following applications. The concrete blocks of size newline150×150×50 mm were casted and tested for the attenuation of gamma radiation. The property of enhanced strength and durability of slag material incorporation in concrete paved a way to carry out manufacture of paver blocks with partial replacement of natural coarse aggregates. Geopolymer mortar foams were fabricated newline newline newline newline newlineby the addition of fly ash with steel slag for thermal resistance applications. For the ocean acidification studies (impact on sea water pH) the prepared concrete blo