LOCAL MICROCHEMICAL HETEROGENEITY AND IRON LOCALIZATION IN SELECTED PARTICLES OF TITANIUM SLAGS OF DIFFERENT ORIGIN: A SEM–EDS/WDS STUDY

Аңдатпа

Titanium slags are chemically and microstructurally heterogeneous intermediates whose process behavior cannot be inferred from bulk iron content alone. This study compares iron localization and impurity-related microchemical architecture in two titanium slags of different origin: a slag prepared from a 60/40 blend of Sierra Leone and Satpayev ilmenite feedstocks and an industrial TiZir slag. Powder particles were examined on a JEOL JXA-8230 electron probe microanalyzer at 20 kV using backscattered-electron imaging, SEM–EDS point/area analysis and mapping, and local WDS mapping. The dataset comprised multiscale images, six EDS mapping sets, 32 point analyses, two area analyses, and one WDS map. Representative mapped fields contained similar Fe levels (6.04 and 6.36 wt.%), yet their spatial organization differed markedly. The 60/40 slag contained a Ti–Fe–Mn oxide matrix, Fe–Mn-enriched regions, one Fe–S-bearing domain, silicate inclusions, and a rare multielement Si–Al–Ca–Ti–Zr–Nb–REE–Th domain. The TiZir slag showed more sharply separated Fe–Cr–Mn-rich regions and elongated aluminosilicate inclusions depleted in Ti. The results demonstrate that comparable field-averaged Fe may correspond to different microchemical architectures. This distinction provides a mineralogical basis for designing future experiments on selective iron removal, while the present data do not by themselves establish leaching kinetics or crystalline phase identity. Further work should combine polished-section EPMA, XRD/EBSD, and controlled iron-removal tests.