Microwave Dehydration Behaviour of Inderite and Comparison with Thermal Analyses Methods

Abstract

Dehydration is called as the water removal from hydrated structure. Dehydration behavior is important for the usage areas and transportation of minerals. Magnesium borates can be used as additive materials in areas such as in the production of superconducting materials, in the composition of detergents, due to the content of boron in the friction-reducing additives in oils and insulating coating compositions due to their good mechanic and thermal properties. In this study, dehydration behavior of Inderite (Mg(B3O3(OH)5).5H2O) was experimented by both using microwave energy different and thermal analyses techniques. In microwave dehydration, power level was selected as 600W. Mass loss and drying rates were determined. In thermal dehydration, hydrated mineral was applied to thermal analysis (TG-DTG). Structural changes of hydrated and dehydrated samples were characterized using the techniques of XRD and FT-IR. XRD results show that crystallinity of sample may decrease in microwave dehydration. According to FT-IR results, characteristic band values of water disappeared at the end of the dehydration.