Electrical and electronic conductivity of CaO-SiO2-FeOx slags at various oxygen potentials: Part I. Experimental results

The oxygen potential dependences of total electrical and partial electronic/ionic conductivities for ‘FeO’-CaO-SiO2 slags have been studied both experimentally and theoretically in the present work. In the first part of this two-part article, the experimental results are presented for slags with 30 wt pct ‘FeO’ and CaO/SiO2 wt ratios of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0. For each slag composition, measurements of total electrical conductivity and electronic transference were made over a range of oxygen potentials and temperatures. The results were used to calculate the partial conductivities. A maximum was achieved in total and electronic conductances as a function of equilibrium CO2/CO. The CO2/CO corresponding to the maximum was shifted to lower values with increasing slag basicity (CaO/SiO2 ratio). The other effect of basicity was increasing total and partial conductivities, with a magnitude that depends on oxygen potential and temperature. The activation energies for ionic and electronic conductances were in similar ranges and decreased with the basicity.