Mullite was synthesised from aluminium hydroxide, Al (OH)3, previously purified from industrial rejects, and silica from acid-treated rice hulls burned at 500 oC. Although mullite synthesis started at 1300 oC, the reported experiments were performed at 1600 oC with 8.0 hours of soaking time. The apparent densities of the pure and yttria doped mullite were, respectively, 2.70 g/cm3 and 2.84 g/cm3, Yttria doped mullite microstructure shows few needle like grains as large as 30 m m. EDS analysis shows that yttria was incorporated in the mullite grains.
mullite; mullite-yttria; yttria; rice hulls silica; aluminum hydroxide
