Preparation of high strength glass ceramic foams from waste cathode ray tube and germanium tailings

Glass ceramic foams made via sintering and economic processing find application in heat insulation, sound absorption and shock wave absorption. Cleaned cathode ray tube (CRT) (panel) waste glasses obtained from dismantling TVs and germanium tailings (GTs) were used as the raw materials to prepare high-strength porous glass ceramic foams by mixing with SiC, sodium borate, and TiO2 as foaming agent, flux agent, and stabilizer, respectively. The glass ceramic foam samples were characterized by DSC, SEM and physical property measurements. Increasing the CRT glass powder content made the foaming process easier. The S2 samples, foamed at 880 °C for 30 min with 56.5 wt% CRT glass powder, 40.0 wt% GTs, and 1.0 wt% SiC, exhibited excellent comprehensive properties. The main crystalline phase of the samples was diopside (Ca(Mg)Si2O6). The bulk density, bending strength, and thermal conductivity of the glass ceramic foams were 226 kg/m3, 3.32 MPa, and 0.68 W/K, respectively.