Asbestos is the cause of 104,000 deaths and 1,523,000 people have suffered permanent disability because of asbestos, and it is estimated that 125,000,000 are exposed to this compound worldwide. Yet it is also known to be one of the best fire retardants. It will be very advantageous to have a simple and facile way to transform such crystals in an inert additive that has yet the properties of fire retardant. In the past, compounds based on MgSi were treated with diammino exafluoro titanium. However, this treatment was never implemented to asbestos. Here we report the introduction of Ti in the chrysotile, one of the most important crystal forms of asbestos, to form a new fiber based on MgxTiySiz. The reaction is fast and simple to execute. We will present optical, spectroscopy, and microscopy data suggesting a new facile way to create a novel compound. These new compounds can be employed as fire retardant and/or as promising hydrogen-storage materials for fuel cell batteries. Finally, this fast reaction can be implemented as a commercial analytical tool for detecting asbestos in air.

Novel synthesis of ternary MgTiSi alloys from asbestos-chrysotile

256th National Meeting (2018)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.