Abstract
Thermal behavior of dickite was studied by thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction analysis, electron microprobe analysis, and scanning electron microscopy, Dickite has an endothermic peak at about$ 650^{\circ}C$ and an exothermic one at $960^{\circ}C$ in the differential thermal analysis. The endothermic reaction is assigned to the decomposition of dickite to meta-dickite. Hydroxyl radicals are removed from dickite structure by the reaction, resulting in the weight loss about 10.5~14.5% and appearance of a 14$\AA$ phase different from other kaolin minerals. The reaction slowly proceed in the range of $200^{\circ}C$. As the completion of decomposition, aciclular mullite forms at the expense of meta-dickite plates with random crystallographic relationship. Mullites have diverse silica versus alumina ratio. The exothermic reaction without weight loss seems to be due to the formation of spinel and amorphous silica. The spinel phase shows cryptocrystalline globular morphology accompanying a little amount of silica. From spinel phase shows cryptocrystalling globular morphology accompanying a little amount of silica. From this work, it is suggested that mullite is formed from meta-dickite much lower temperature than the reported one in the previous works.
