Phase-structural heterogeneity and activity of the surface of polymineral sand powders

: Introduction. The value of the specific surface ( S sp ), the degree of crystallinity (С, %) and surface activity ( k s ) plays an important role in creating various compositions. The increase in the size of S sp is associated with a change in the “С” of rock powders, the value of which characterizes the properties of fillers. The reactivity of the finely dispersed material can be determined by the value of k s , which allows quantifying transition of the potential energy into free surface energy by activating the surface of the raw material. Therefore, determining the functional relationship between the parameters characterizing the reactivity of rock powders is an urgent task. Methods and Materials. Four deposits of polymineral construction sands are selected as raw materials. To obtain fine powders, the samples were ground by dry dispersion. The specific surface area of rock systems was determined by gas sorption. Crystallinity was calculated from the X-ray diffractogram of the samples. Results and Discussion. The certain sizes of specific surfaces for highly dispersed rocks have shown, that deposits “Kenica” and “Nekhtskoye” possess the greatest values S sp . The study of the phase-structural heterogeneity of the samples, showed a significant increase of the content of the amorphous phase. At the same time, the degree of crystallinity for the sands “Kenica” and “Nekhtskoye” deposits decreases 25%. The functional relationship between the surface activity and the shares of the amorphous component ( c ) for highly dispersed sands was characterized by mathematical expression k s = 21 • 10 –6 • c +0,58 • 10 –6 . The identified dependence demonstrates the relationship between the parameters of the phase-structural heterogeneity and k s of fine-dispersed samples. Conclusion. The results obtained showed that mechanical dispersion contributes to the activation of raw materials. This is due to the breakability of the crystal structure of minerals and the texture of the raw materials. These characteristics are reflected in the value of the activity of the surface of fine-dispersed systems of the rocky rocks.