Novel eco-friendly fabrication of foam glass-ceramics via waste glass and fly ash from fused brown corundum

The paper deals with possibilities of using fly ash from fused brown corundum and waste glass in the production of foam glass-ceramics. The effect of the fly ash content on microstructure evolution and the properties of the glass-ceramics were investigated. Structural evolution as an effect of different formulations was studied by micrography. Observed from the shrinkage of pore sizes and the densification of the matrix, the higher bulk density revealed an increase in strength. The bulk density and compressive strength of the samples increased from 0.81 to 1.32 g/cm(3) and from 3.1 to 14.7 MPa, respectively, as the content of fly ash increased from 20 to 50 wt%. Overall in this study, the result shows the significant optimization in structure and properties of the samples with 20 wt% fly ash from fused brown corundum. Such uniform porous glass-ceramics with lower bulk density and enhanced strength can be prepared by the melting foam method, with excellent prospects of application in wall and insulation materials.