Effects of the Red Mud Based Pigment Addition on the Physical and Micro-Structural Properties of Porcelain Tiles

Abstract. In the production of conventional porcelain tiles colouring agents, being either in the form of pure oxides or pigments, are commonly and widely used at considerably high amounts to increase the attraction impact of final products. This, of course, raises the manufacturing costs. Having stated that, producing pigments at a reasonable cost really becomes an important concept for such a type of product. When producing aluminium metals through Bayer process Seydisehir aluminium factory of Turkey disposes huge amounts of red mud, which consists of high iron oxide and was thought to be valuable in terms of cheap pigment production. In the present study, pigments with the shades of black, brown and dark green colours were produced from the mixtures of red mud, CoO, Cr2O3 and MnO by following standard pigment preparation routes. Then, they were added into a porcelain tile composition separately. All the samples produced undergone through certain standard tests. The effect of red mud based pigments on the micro-structure of porcelain tiles was also searched.