Hazardous bauxite red mud and ferrous slag management to produce sustainable construction materials

This paper reports the development and characterization of new ceramics from hazardous bauxite red mud (50 to 100 wt. %) and blast furnace slag (10 and 50%). The research aimed to demonstrate the possibility of expanding the base of powder raw materials for production of ceramics, completely replacing the traditional clay and sand with composites made from hazardous industrial wastes, which provide increasing local and global sustainability. The investigation of the physical–chemical changes in the ceramics structure was conducted by the AAS, XRD, SEM, XRF, LAMMA, and EDS tests. Changes in water absorption, density, linear shrinkage, and flexural strength were determined while the sintering processes ranged from 1000° to 1225 °C. Flexural strength reached 19.78 MPa after sintering at 1225 °C due to the syntheses of new structure formations, mainly similar to glass, confirmed by the characterization methods used, attesting to the complete binding of heavy metals.