Effects of Grinding and Starting Materialson Synthesis of Forsterite

Mixed grinding of the two sets of starting materials was conducted under atmospheric dry condition by a planetary ball mill to investigate the formation of forsterite in the sintered body. These were talc-magnesium carbonate basic (MCB) and talc-magnesium oxide powder mixtures. The specific surface area of the ground product increases in the initial stage, subsequently it decreases due to aggregation of the obtained fine particles. The grinding the mixture of talc and (MCB) causes structural change into amorphization, while crystalline phases still remain in the ground mixture of talc and MgO. This amorphization in the former mixture resuls in the formation of forsterite single phase at lower temperature than that of the unground one as well as that of the latter one. The addition of methanol and regrinding of the mixture induce lowering of sintering temperature by about 100 K in the formation of forsterite single phase.