Synthesis and Characteristics of Blue Ceramic Pigments Using Electric Arc Furnace Dust

Electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) is a solid waste generated by the steel-scrap recycling process.It mainly consists of zinc oxides (ZnO), alumina (Al 2 O 3 ), iron oxides (Fe 2 O 3 ), and silica (SiO 2 ).Here we report the preparation and characterization of blue ceramic pigments using EAFD powder as a starting material.(Zn(EAFD),Co)Al 2 O 4 blue ceramic pigment was prepared by the solid-state reaction method.The color characteristics of the pigment obtained were compared with those of pure CoAl 2 O 4 .The new pigment was characterized using XRD, CIE-L*a*b* color-measurements, SEM, and EDX.The XRD analysis revealed that the (Zn(EAFD), Co)Al 2 O 4 pigment was composed of mainly the spinel phase of (Zn,Co)Al 2 O 4 .The Zn(EAFD) 0.25 ,Co 0.75 Al 2 O 4 pigments showed a vivid blue color with a b* value of -28.64 and a good glaze stability with a transparent glaze.