Dear Carlos,
It is very difficult to answer whether such analysis will be helpful
until you have carried it out. But I would always advise not to etch
the sample, but to leave it in the polished state, and just coat it with
carbon, as it should not be necessary to etch the surface if you have a
back-scattered electron detector on your SEM to see the phases.
You will need to identify the phases present (if any other than
glassy slag). It may then be possible to correlate these with the
various limits of the Ellingham diagram. But this only work if you have
phases present that respond to change of pO2. This should be carried out
on a number of samples to check consistency.
However, this assumes that that the material is the result of the
initial stge of smelting rather than refining. Then the position become
much more complex.
As for determining minimum furnace temperature, a melting or soften
test in a furnace with an inert atmosphere is probably the best way to
proceed. Sometimes, the material from the furnace lining mmight be a
better indicator of temperature depending on composition.
Please feel free to contact me off-group if you have furthr queries.
.
Chris
> Dear all,
>
> I want to analyze slag samples to obtain information about the ores smelted, the technology of smelt, and the required temperatures and atmosphere conditions. However, I am not sure about the best way to prepare and analyze the samples I recovered from the site I am studying. It consists of four spanish colonials reverberatory furnaces and I took some samples of slag to analyze. According to geological reports, some previous analysis and historical references, the furnaces could have smelt silver and lead.
>
> I have already cut the samples of slag, mounted them in epoxy resin and polish its surfaces, using standard procedures for metallographic studies. However, as I plan to analyze the samples with SEM/EDX, I am not sure if I should attack the surfaces chemically to reveal its structure or not (as it is done with metal samples). I should attack slag samples or I should analyze them polished only?
>
> I have observed the polished surfaces with a metallographic microscope and in most cases, there is a quite uniform surface with some bright inclusions, some oxides and tubular grey shapes. I haven't observed it with cross-polarized light yet, but I will do it to see if I can identify some other phases.
>
> Thank you very much for your help.
>
> Best regards,
>
>
>
> Dr. Carlos I. Angiorama
>
> CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Tucumán
>
> Argentina
>
>
>
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Chris Salter
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