Abstract: Coal fly ash is a kind of solid waste generated in the process of coal-fired power. Its massive accumulation not only takes up land resources,but also causes serious environmental pollution and even endangers human health. However,fly ash contains valuable resources such as silica and alumina,especially the high alumina fly ash produced in western Inner Mongolia and northern Shanxi province with the amount of alumina and silicon oxide reaching more than 80%-85%,which has a great prospect of resource utilization. Mullitebased materials are widely used in the fields of metallurgy,catalysis,water treatment,aviation and other fields because of their excellent physical and chemical properties. The preparation of mullite using natural aluminosilicate minerals or high-purity reagents not only consumes a lot of mineral resources,but also has the problem of high production cost. The synthesis of mullite series materials using fly ash as raw material can effectively reduce the consumption of natural minerals,lower production cost and mitigate environmental pollution. Therefore,the preparation of mullite-based materials from coal fly ash is one of the most important ways to realize the high-value resource utilization. Based on the summary of the compositions,properties,synthesis methods and applications of mullite,the research progress on mullite-based materials prepared by comprehensive utilization of coal fly ash was summarized from the perspective of composition,mineral phase regulation for the preparation of coal fly ash-based mullite,its properties and application. In order to achieve the regulation of the structure and performance of fly ash-based mullite series materials and promote the high value and resource utilization of coal fly ash,the current types of mullite series materials synthesized from coal fly ash and their preparation methods were systematically summarized,the aluminum-silica ratio regulation,impurity control in coal fly ash and mullite generation mechanism were analyzed,and the properties of different coal fly ash-based mullite materials and their influencing factors were described.