Iron-containing phases in metallurgical and coke dusts as well as in bog iron ore

Several samples of dusts from steel and coke plants (collected mostly with electro filters) were subjected to the investigation of content of mineral phases in their particles. Additionally, sample of bog iron ore and metallurgical slurry was studied. Next, the magnetic susceptibility of all the samples was determined, and investigations of iron-containing phases were performed using transmission Mössbauer spectrometry. The values of mass-specific magnetic susceptibility χ varied in a wide range: from 59 to above 7000 × 10⁻⁸ m^-3·kg⁻¹. The low values are determined for bog iron ore, metallurgical slurry, and coke dusts. The extremely high χ was obtained for metallurgical dusts. The Mössbauer spectra and X-ray diffraction patterns point to the presence of the following phases containing iron: hematite and oxidized magnetite (in coke and metallurgical dusts as well as metallurgical slurry), traces of magnetite fine grains fraction (in metallurgical dusts), amorphous glassy silicates with paramagnetic Fe³⁺ and Fe²⁺ ions, traces of pyrrhotite (in coke dusts), α-Fe and nonstoichiometric wüstite (in metallurgical slurry), as well as ferrihydrite nanoparticles (in bog iron ore). For individual samples of metallurgical dusts, the relative contributions of Fe²⁺/³⁺ ions in octahedral B sites and Fe²⁺ ions in tetrahedral A sites in magnetite spinel structure differs considerably.