minerals Review Mullite-Based Ceramics from Mining Waste: A Review Maximina Romero 1,* , Isabel Padilla 1, Manuel Contreras 2 and Aurora López-Delgado 3 1 MEDES-IETcc Group, Eduardo Torroja Institute for Construction Science, IETcc-CSIC, Serrano Galvache 4, 28033 Madrid, Spain;
[email protected] 2 Department of Integrated Sciences, Research Centre for Natural Resources, Health and Environment (RENSMA), El Carmen Campus, University of Huelva, 21007 Huelva, Spain;
[email protected] 3 MEDES-CENIM Group, National Centre for Metallurgical Research, CENIM-CSIC, Av. Gregorio del Amo 8, 28040 Madrid, Spain;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: Mullite (3Al2O3·2SiO2) is an aluminosilicate characterized by excellent physical properties, which makes it an important ceramic material. In this way, ceramics based on mullite find applications in different technological fields as refractory material (metallurgy, glass, ceramics, etc.), matrix in composite materials for high temperature applications, substrate in multilayer packaging, protective coatings, components of turbine engines, windows transparent to infrared radiation, etc. However, mullite is scarce in nature so it has to be manufactured through different synthesis methods, such as sintering, melting-crystallization or through a sol-gel route. Commonly, mullite is fabricated from pure technical grade raw materials, making the manufacturing process expensive. An alternative to lowering the cost is the use of mining waste as silica (SiO2) and alumina (Al2O3) feedstock, which are the necessary chemical compounds required to manufacture mullite ceramics. In addition to the economic benefits, the use of mining waste brings out environmental benefits as it prevents Citation: Romero, M.; Padilla, I.; the over-exploitation of natural resources and reduces the volume of mining waste that needs to Contreras, M.; López-Delgado, A.