Metallurgical waste and vermiculite are solid residues that have potential of utilization as filtering material. Nevertheless, they are commonly discarded. These materials have chemical sites like Si-O, Si-O-Si in vermiculite or have good ionic exchange properties like iron oxide compounds that can be used in adsorption processes. When these materials are combined with a synthetic blanket (OH, C=C, CO and C-H groups), it composes a filter layer with potential to be used in wastewater treatment. In this article, these materials were chemically treated and characterized by Thermogravimetry (TG), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and coupled TG-FTIR. The results suggest that organic compound contamination was not found after chemical treatment, which could have remained over the unity operations in the Metallurgical processes. The thermal and acid treatments influenced a major formation of iron oxide formation, but its oxidation degree (FeO, Fe2O3, or Fe2O3.FeO) were dependent on the sample granulometry. The Vermiculite shows an irreversible chemical modification after thermal treatment. The characterization of these residues shows its potential use as material in filter construction. Hence, it is fundamental to minimize the environmental impacts as well as to diminish the production costs in wastewater treatment.

Solid-state MBz compounds, where M stands for bivalent Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn and Bz is benzoate, have been synthesized. Simultaneous thermogravimetry and differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), infrared spectroscopy and complexometry were used to characterize and to study the thermal behaviour of these compounds. The procedure used in the preparation of the compounds via reaction of basic carbonates with benzoic acid is not efficient in eliminating excess acid. However the TG-DTA curves permitted to verify that the binary compounds can be obtained by thermosynthesis, because the benzoic acid can be eliminated before the thermal decomposition of these compounds. The results led to information about the composition, dehydration, thermal stability, thermal decomposition and structure of the isolated compounds. On heating, these compounds decompose in two (Mn, Co, Ni, Zn) or three (Fe, Cu) steps with formation of the respective oxide (Mn3O4, Fe2O3, Co3O4, NiO, CuO and ZnO) as final residue. The theoretical and experimental spectroscopic studies suggest a covalent bidentate bond between ligand and metallic center.