Transformation Characteristics of Gucheng Quartzite and Assessment of Its Application Prospects

Abstract

With the aim to well understand the relationship between the composition and properties of quartzite in Gucheng, three types of quartzite from a mining area in Gucheng have been investigated. This paper focused on the phase composition evolution and thermal expansion behavior of them under different thermal histories in the temperature range of 1200 °C to 1500 °C, and subsequently, the true density and microstructure were also measured and analyzed. In addition, inclusion analysis was conducted. The results indicate that black quartzite has a higher Fe content, white quartzite has relatively higher Al and K contents, and gray quartzite has a higher Ca content. Furthermore, all three types of quartzite almost completely transform into cristobalite after heat treatment at 1500 °C, although the transformation rates vary slightly with increasing temperature. The thermal expansion of the three types of quartzite exhibits similar trends, but gray quartzite exhibits greater residual expansion. It is believed that the phase transformation plays a dominant role in the total expansion, together with the sintering effect accelerated by the glass phase. At the same time, the microstructure of quartzite was also significantly influenced by the phase transformation process. The gas/liquid inclusion analysis revealed that all three types of quartzite have high inclusion content. The black quartzite contained only 5% transparent particles, the lowest among the three specimens, none of the three quartzite types are suitable for direct use in high-purity quartz applications.

Keywords

Quartz / Phase composition / Microstructure / Gas/liquid inclusions

Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate the Hua Yi new materials (Xiang Yang) company providing quartzite samples for investigation. In addition, true density and thermal expansion testing by Zhiqiang Liu from State Key Laboratory of Advanced Refractories, Wuhan University of Science and Technology were also gratefully appreciated.

Statement of the Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in the Writing Process

In the course of preparing this manuscript, the authors employed AI-assisted language tools exclusively for improving readability, polishing phrasing, and correcting grammatical errors. All other aspects of this work-including data collection, analysis, interpretation, figure preparation, and the formulation of scientific conclusions-were performed entirely by the authors without the involvement of any AI-based applications.

Author Contributions

Q.X.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Literature review, Writing-original draft, Review & editing. B.F.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Review and editing. D.Z.: Supervision, Review and editing. Y.Y.: Methodology, Guidance, Review and editing. S.J.: Funding acquisition, Review and editing.

Ethics Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

Not applicable.

Funding

The financial support from the Open Foundation of the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Refractory Materials (Wuhan) (Grant No. G202305), the High-End Foreign Experts Program (Grant No. 2022EJD021), and the Hubei Provincial Special Fund for Central-Guided Local S&T Development (Grant No. 2025CSA017) is gratefully acknowledged.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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