A novel process of preparing glass-ceramics with pseudo-bioclastic texture

Water quenching-induced cracked-glass was used as parent glass to prepare glass-ceramics in this work. The cracked-glass panel was first heat-treated through two-step method, i.e. sintering for 1 h at 860 degrees C and subsequent crystallization for 1.5 h at 1080 degrees C, and then naturally cooled down to room temperature to be transformed into glass-ceramics. XRD and SEM observations confirm that the cracked-glass can be used as parent glass to deposit P-wollastonite crystals depending on crack crystallization mechanism. The volume densities, porosities and bending strengths of the glass-ceramics are respectively around 2.7 g/cm(3), 0.5% and 40 MPa. As compared with glass-ceramics prepared by conventional glass grain sintering process, the new type of glass-ceramics produced by CGC process shows pseudo-bioclastic texture and has less gas pore flaws, and may therefore become an alternative for materials of architectural decoration. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.