Global Advanced Materials & Surfaces Conference 2016 GAMS 2016 05 Dec - 07 Dec 2016 | Dubai- United Arab Emirates Study of microscopic and thermal properties of iron-based powders obtained by high-energy ball milling of Calamine A. BALASKA 1,* , T. CHOUCHANE 1 , A. BOUDIAF 1 , B. MAALEM1, A. HAMOUDA 1 , S. DJEMILI 1 1 Research Center In industrial technologies CRTI P.O.Box 64, Cheraga 16014 Algiers, Algeria. Email: a.balaska@crti.dz Abstract: This study was carried out with an intention to prepare iron-based powders from metallurgy industry waste called Calamine. The latter consists of oxides scale formed on the surface of hot rolled steel. The mechanical alloying process used in this work is high-energy planetary ball mill. Morphological and thermal shifts of the milled oxides scale powders were characterized by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA). The results showed that the oxide scale contains more than 98% of iron. Keywords: Calamine, iron-based powders, mechanical alloying scanning electron microscopy, thermal analysis. 1. Introduction The kinetics and morphology of the oxidation of steels has been reviewed by Chen and Yuen; 2003 [1]. They have obtained that the oxide scales formed on low-carbon steels at 570 to 760°C are not as regular as those on pure iron, with hematite and magnetite becoming the major components in the scale for oxidation times of more than 1 hr. At T>1200°C, they showed that the oxide-scale thickness increases monotonically with increased starting cooling temperature. Scales formed on silicon-killed steel are thinner than those on aluminum-killed steel, particularly for scales formed after cooling from very high temperatures). Iron oxides exist in a rich variety of structures and occur in a great variety of settings. All the iron oxides are crystalline except Schwertmannite and ferrihydrite which are poorly crystalline. Ferrous and ferric iron oxides present seven crystalline phases, the more common are α-Fe2O3 (hematite), γ-Fe2O3 (maghemite), Fe3O4 (magnetite) and FeO (wustite), the less commonly found are the β- and ε-Fe2O3 phases and the low-temperature rhombohedrical structure of magnetite[2]. Thanks to their fascinating properties, all of these oxides have been widely investigated by chemists, engineers, and physicists. These phases have been used successfully in many applications; e.g., magnetite have been used in cancer diagnosis and therapy, drug delivery vehicles and in water remediation. Magnetite thin films lend themselves to room temperature applications in the construction of different devices such as tunneling magnetoresistance, giant magnetoresistance and magnetic random-access memory devices [2,3]. Maghemite is used in magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic recording media, fabrication of biocompatible magnetic fluids, and electrochromic devices [2]. Hematite have been explored in the development of electrochromic devices , as cathodes in lithium batteries [2,4] and in the construction of photoelectrochemical systems to produce hydrogen from water using solar radiation [2,5]. Thin films of wustite/maghemite have been used in solar radiation filters [2,6].