Quantitative characterization of phases present in aluminum drosses through X-ray diffraction

White dross is a result of the aluminum oxidation during its primary production and is mainly composed of metallic aluminum, Al₂O ₃, with minor amounts of AlN and some other oxides. Because of the great variety of phases, the quantitative characterization is complicated. This work shows a quantitative method to determine the main phases of white aluminum drosses by means of X-ray diffraction (the Rietveld method). Nowadays the Rietveld method is maybe the most useful method for obtaining quantitative phases information in multicomponent mixtures, this method permits relatively quick quantitative phase analysis by fitting the calculated X-ray diffraction profile with the observed one. The analysis were done using powder with a grain size less than 45 μm; to obtain the suitable material size the aluminum dross was grounded by ten minutes, several times. The grounded material was screened, and the material smaller than 45 μm was taken to quantitative XRD analysis.