CHARACTERIZATION OF CLAY FROM MARABAN RIDO KADUNA STATE AND ITS APPLICATION IN THE PRODUCTION OF DENSE REFRACTORY FIREBRICKS

📄 Project Abstract

The word "clay" has ambivalent definitions. On one hand it is used to define any soil particle smaller than 2m, but on the other hand it includes a large group of microcrystalline secondary minerals based on hydrous aluminium or magnesium silicates that have sheet like structures. Clay minerals have been part of human existence since antiquity and were used as natural nanomaterials along history for industrial and commercial uses. The first recorded applications were more than 5000 years ago, in Cyprus and Greece, for bleaching fleece and clothes, and removal of grease and stains from it (Rytwo, 2000). This is an abundant fine earthy powder produced by the weathering and disintegration of granite and feldspathic rocks (Malu et al., 2013). However, certain high grade types of clay deposits are limited in geographic occurrence and extent. Clays containing a preponderance of the clay mineral kaolinite are known as kaolinitic clays. Several commercial clays are composed predominantly of ka...