Abstract
During the production of silicon, a significant amount of waste is generated, namely micro- and nanosilica. Micro- and nanosilica, with its properties and structure, immediately interested scientists in many countries from the point of view of processing this material into a new product with unique functional properties. The article presents the results of studies of waste from various industries - microsilica, as a waste of silicon production, zinc ash - a waste of the hot-dip galvanizing process, and abrasive powder - a waste of metal machining. To study waste from various industries, the authors used the method of electron microscopy as the simplest and fastest way to transmit information about the microstructure, elemental composition and grain size distribution. A comparative analysis of the microstructures and properties of these materials was carried out in order to better understand the nature and predict the possibility of their further use as initial components for the production of new composite materials. Keywords: microsilica, zinc ash, microstructure, waste disposal, composite material, properties of new materials.