Cellular vitreous materials obtained by gel slip casting of a vegetable oil emulsion

ABSTRACT Glass wastes can be reused for the development of alternative materials. A viable option are the cellular materials for thermal insulation since with isolated pores they show low thermal conductivity, low density and service temperatures higher than those of the polymeric insulating materials. In this work an aqueous suspension was prepared with previously milled glass wastes, agar (gelling) and Emustab(r) (emulsifier), in which different soy oil fractions (50, 70 and 90 wt% ) were added. Subsequently, the emulsification of the vegetable oil was carried out in the liquid suspension by stirring in a mechanical mixer at high shear. Cylindrical samples were produced by gelation slip casting and fired at 700 °C/30 min. The results showed that the obtained cellular glasses had porosity between 74 and 93% with well-defined and distributed pores and low thermal conductivity (0.05 to 0.09 W/mK). These results indicate that the obtained materials are potential candidates to act as thermal insulators, such as panels for coatings used in construction.