Fabrication of highly insulating foam glass made from CRT panel glass

We prepared low-density foam glasses from cathode-ray-tube panel glass using carbon and MnO2 as the foaming agents. We investigated the influence of the carbon and MnO2 concentrations, the glass-powder preparation and the foaming conditions on the density and homogeneity of the pore structure and the dependence of the thermal conductivity on the foam density. The results show that the moderate foaming effect of the carbon is greatly improved by the addition of MnO2. A density as low as 131 kg m−3 can be achieved with fine glass powder. The foam density has a slight dependence on the carbon and MnO2 concentrations, but it is mainly affected by the foaming temperature and the time. The thermal conductivity of the foam-glass samples is lower than that of commercial foam glasses with the same density. The lowest value was determined to be 42 mW m−1 K−1 for a foam glass with a density of 131 kg m−3. A further improvement in the closed porosity could potentially decrease the thermal conductivity even further, and thus our approach has great potential in terms of a thermal insulation material.