General characterization and potential use of Moroccan lizardite clay in ceramics: Technological and dielectric studies

This work focuses on the characterization of lizardite and studying the technological and dielectric features of ceramics based on this geomaterial by experimental measurements. Note that, the physical evaluation (dielectric properties) of magnesian clay has never been studied. Natural lizardite was extracted from the Beni Boussera massif (Rif, Morocco), and was characterized in terms of chemical, physical, mineralogical and thermal aspects. A purification process was carried out to identify the mineral phases present in this material. The results showed that the studied material is mainly composed of silica (47.16 wt%) and magnesia (31.21 wt%), it is also richer in clay minerals such as lizardite and chlorite. The ceramic specimens were prepared by the uniaxial pressing method, followed by sintering to different temperatures (i.e., 900, 1000, 1100, and 1200 °C). The influence of the sintering temperature on porosity, density, shrinkage, water absorption, mechanical and microstructural properties of ceramics was evaluated, as well as chemical resistance and dielectric properties were studied. The evaluation of the optimized ceramic materials shows that good dielectric properties are obtained when sintered at a temperature of 1100 °C with a dielectric constant of 1.33, a dielectric loss of around 0.08, and a conductivity of 4.86 E−8 S/cm, at high frequency. Furthermore, the obtained ceramic specimen has a porosity of 17%, a density of 2.02 g/cm3, a water absorption of 9.86%, and a mechanical strength of 19.3 MPa. As a consequence, the results obtained have provided ceramics based on a natural resource with favorable technological and mechanical properties, and very interesting dielectric properties.