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Water and waterglass mixtures for foam glass production

Daniela Heskya,n, Christos G. Anezirisa, Ulrich Großb, Anja Hornb
a
Institute of Ceramic, Glass and Construction Materials, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Freiberg, Germany
b
Institute of Thermal Engineering, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Freiberg, Germany
Received 20 May 2015; received in revised form 16 June 2015; accepted 18 June 2015

Abstract

The present study investigates the use of sodium waterglass as an environmental friendly foaming agent to create fine porous foam glasses. The
reactivity of the foaming agent was determined using thermogravimetrical measurements and difference scanning calorimeter analysis. The
porosity of the foam glasses was measured and the pore morphology was evaluated using scanning electron microscopy. Phase formation caused
by the addition of waterglass was studied using X-ray diffraction. Furthermore, thermal conductivity and splitting tensile strength of the materials
were measured. Foaming by using only waterglass as foaming agent is possible. As a result, fine porous foam glasses with closed pores of 4 nm
to 800 mm in diameter and mechanical strengths of 1.7 N/mm2 could be obtained. Conventional foam glasses which are available on the market
have bigger pore sizes up to 3 mm and achieve lower strength. For this reason the produced foam glass can be used as a promising light weight
construction material.
& 2015 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.

Keywords: B. Porosity; D. Foam glass; Waterglass

1. Introduction
Glass waste accumulates in a large amount and therefore its
recycling is of great environmental and commercial concern.
Often, glass waste varies substantially in particle size, color,
and composition and to a large extent it is impossible to reuse
it in the glass production. Furthermore, in many cases waste
glass contains metallic or non-metallic components, such as
cathode ray tube waste including lead [1]. In the production of
foam glass, up to 70% of the needed raw material can be
substituted by waste glass [2].
Foam glass can be produced with closed or open and
permeable porosity. This paper deals with the investigation
of foam glass with closed porosity which is an interesting
insulating material and can be utilized for insulating roofs,
walls and below-grade applications [3]. It can also be applied
to protect structural components against fire, moisture and
erosion [1].
n
Corresponding author. Tel.: þ49 3731 39 2205; fax: þ 49 3731 39 2419.
E-mail address: daniela.hesky@ikgb.tu-freiberg.de (D. Hesky).
To produce foam glass, glass cullet are ground into a fine
powder and mixed with a foaming agent. This mixture is then
heated up to temperatures above the softening point of
the glass.
During the heat treatment, the foaming agent reacts with the
glass powder and releases gases, which form gas filled pores.
These dispersed pores increase the volume of the glass sample
and result in a lightweight, porous product. After the heat
treatment, the glass foam is cooled down to room temperature,
thus the glass melt solidifies with a porous structure [2].
Conventional foam glasses are often foamed with carbon or
sulfate based agents. As carbon based agents such as silicon
carbide, pure carbon or carbohydrates are used. The pores are
generated due to oxidation in case of carbon (graphite, coal,
carbon black, pyrolytic residues in fly ashes, etc.) or due to
thermal decomposition of sulfates (CaSO4) [3,4]. To reduce
raw material costs, application of foaming agents such as SiC
(Table 1) from waste might be environmentally and economic-
ally beneficial [5].
For many years different alternative foaming agents have
been studied; using conventional foaming agents environmen-
tally critical gases such as CO, CO2 or SO2 are released.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2015.06.088
0272-8842/& 2015 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: D. Hesky, et al., Water and waterglass mixtures for foam glass production, Ceramics International (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
ceramint.2015.06.088
2 D. Hesky et al. / Ceramics International ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]]
Table 1
Properties of glass foams which were produced using different foaming agents;
strength: c—compressive strength, b—bending strength.
Foaming Max. pore Apparent Total Strength
agent size [mm] density porosity [MPa]
[g/cm3] [vol%]
CaCO3 2 0.24 1.2–16.6
(c)
MnO2 2 0.24 1.2–16.6
(c)
SiC 0.25 90 0.75 (b)
Therefore, Si3N4 [8] and MnO2 [9] were investigated as
alternative foaming agents, among others.
There are several studies, which researched foaming of glass
using waterglass and additional foaming agents. Waterglass
may support the foaming process through vaporization of
included water while heating of the glass powder. In a patent
application [10] there is a short passage about waterglass and
the possibility to create pores during a first reaction. In this
patent application a mixture of waterglass, water, glycerin and
sodium bentonite was subjoined to the glass powder.
In all these studies, at least one additional foaming agent
was appropriated apart from waterglass. At this reason water-
glass was not the main foaming agent, but it was added for
better homogenization of raw materials, instead for better
foaming [10–12]. However, the waterglass is not only a binder
but also a foaming agent, because water vaporizes during
thermal treatment of the mixture. A proof of this is given in a
paper: by adding waterglass to glass powder, foamed granules
of high porosity could be obtained. The pore size however,
was very inhomogeneous [6]. The effect of increasing the
volume during water vaporization could also be observed for
the minerals vermiculite and pyrolit. Pure vermiculite could
expand around 30 until 40 times of the original volume during
thermal treatment [13].
In this paper the possibility of creating glass foams by using
only waterglass or a mixture of water and waterglass as
foaming agent was investigated. The reason for the application
of waterglass is that no environmentally critical gases are
released. Furthermore, waterglass is a well available and cheap
raw material.
Based on the generated porosity level mechanical and
physical properties are studied. To determine these properties
of the glass foams porosity, strength and thermal conductivity
measurements were applied. Furthermore, X-ray analysis,
thermogravimetrical measurements and differential scanning
calorimeter analyses were carried out.
2. Materials and methods
For the sample production a float glass powder was used
(ST-220-M, Reidt, Germany) with particle size from 1 to
106 mm. The chemical composition of the glass powder was
obtained by chemical analysis with an ICP-OES-spectrometer
(Spectroflame Compact S, SPECTRO Analytical Instruments
Please cite this article as: D. Hesky, et al., Water and waterglass mixtures for foam glass production, Ceramics International (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
ceramint.2015.06.088
Table 2
Composition of prepared foaming agents in weight percent in relation to glass
powder content.
Literary Compositions Waterglass content in wt% Water content in wt%
source
Wg6W24 6 24
Wg12W18 12 18
[6] Wg18W12 18 12
Wg24W6 24 6
[6] Wg20W0 20 0
Wg30W0 30 0
[7] Wg40W0 40 0
Wg50W0 50 0
GmbH). As the foaming agent liquid sodium waterglass (Carl
Roth, Germany) was used, which included a content of 64.5 wt
% water, 7.8–8.5 wt% Na2O and 25.8–28.5 wt% SiO2.
The waterglass was added in different ratios to the glass
powder, to investigate the influence on the foaming reaction at
temperatures above the softening point of the glass. Further-
more, a mixture of water and waterglass was tested as foaming
agent. The compositions of the foaming agents are listed in
Table 2.
In the first investigation, the foaming agent included water
(W) and sodium waterglass (Wg). This agent was subjoined in
a ratio of 30 wt%, based on the glass content. The samples
were named after their foaming agent content (see Table 2) as
WgxWy. As an example the 30 wt% foaming agent of the
sample Wg6W24 is composed of 6 wt% waterglass and 24 wt%
water. In a second experimental series foams without addi-
tional water were produced to examine foaming only by using
waterglass. This agent was subjoined in percentages up to
50 wt% (Wg50W0) relating to the glass powder content.
For mixing of these compositions, a closed electric stirrer was
used. The volume of the stirrer was 255 cm3 and the composition
was mixed for one minute. Cylindrical samples with a diameter of
50 mm and a high of approximately 20 mm were manually die
pressed until a bulk density of round 1200 kg/m3 was obtained. It
was determined based on the mass and geometrical dimensions of
the pressed sample. The pressed samples were positioned without
covering on a sintering aid for thermal treatment in an electrical
furnace (VEB Elektro, Bad Frankenhausen, Germany). They were
heated up with 4 K/min to a temperature of 800 1C and after a
dwell time of 30 min they cooled freely down to room temperature.
This was done immediately after their preparation to prevent the
loss of the waterglass. Subsequently, the foams were machined
with a grinding machine (VEB Plattenwerk Max Dietel, Meißen,
Germany) to abrasive finishing till 2 mm of the smooth surface of
the samples. The entire surface of the sample was machined by
using this method.
The composition of the sample with the highest porosity was
chosen to investigate the optimal foaming temperature. For this,
the samples were thermal treated with the maximum tempera-
tures of 600, 700, 800 and 900 1C. The temperature regime and
sample after-treatment was the same as described above.
To study the transferability of the measured properties,
additional samples with larger dimensions were produced. For
 D. Hesky et al. / Ceramics International ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]]
the production only the composition bringing the highest
porosity was selected. Glass powder and foaming agents were
mixed in an intensive mixer (Eirich, Typ RV 02, Germany) for
one minute. Afterwards the mixture was given in a mold of
mullite bonded SiC with the dimensions of 12.5  20  44
cm3. The material was compacted by hand before closing the
form with a freely supported cover. Finally the mold with the
mixture was heated up with 4 K/min up to a temperature of
800 1C and after a dwell time of 5 h was cooled freely down to
room temperature. The obtained foam can then be cut into
desired shape. For thermal conductivity measurements with
cross-wire technique according to ISO 8894-1 (Thermal
Conductivity Tester 426, Netzsch, Germany) the samples were
cut into dimensions of 22.0  11.5  5.0 cm3. To measure the
thermal conductivity with this method two foamglass blocks
were used which are positioned below and above the wire
respectively. The measurement takes place at room tempera-
ture, at 250 1C and at 500 1C.
A study was carried out with the aid of heating microscope,
to obtain the starting and final temperature of the foaming
reaction of the water glass samples. The samples Wg50W0 and
the pure glass powder sample were pressed. For the measure-
ment a cylindrical shaped sample with a diameter of 10 mm
and a high of approximately 10 mm was pressed with an arbor
press (DOP 2000, Holzmann Maschinen, Germany). The press
capacity was 2356.2N. The sample which consists of pure
waterglass was made by drying the liquid sodium waterglass.
The investigated sodium waterglass sample has the dimensions
1.2  1.0  0.3 cm3. The samples were positioned on an
alumina sintering aid and heated up with 4 K/min to a
temperature of 1000 1C. In defined intervals a camera takes
pictures of the sample in the furnace.
The thermal conductivity of the machined samples at room
temperature was investigated with the aid of hot disk method
(TPS 2500S, Hot Disk AB, Sweden) according to DIN EN
ISO 22007-2. For this purpose, a sensor consisting of two
nickel coils embedded in foils was placed between two
identical coplanar samples of one material (Fig. 1). For the
measurements, a Kapton-insulated sensor with a radius of
6.4 mm was used. Afterwards, the sensor was electrically
heated up applying a specific constant heating power between
0.03 and 0.10 W over a defined measuring time between 10
and 80 s. Thus, the temperature of the wire and of the sample
increased. By measuring the raise of the electrical resistance,
the temperature increase of the wire was determined, which is
directly linked to the thermal conductivity of the sample [14].
The splitting tensile strength of the cylindrically formed
samples was investigated according to DIN EN 826 with the
universal strength testing machine (TIRAtest 2850, TIRA,
Germany) and the program Test & Motion (SSM Testronik
GmbH, Germany). Therefore, the cylindrical foam glass
sample was positioned vertically and stressed from top and
below. At least six samples of each composition were
examined (Fig. 2).
The true density (ρt) was determined by using a helium
pycnometer (AccuPyc 1330, Micromeritics, Germany). For
determining the bulk density (ρb) the mass and geometrical
Please cite this article as: D. Hesky, et al., Water and waterglass mixtures for foam glass production, Ceramics International (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
ceramint.2015.06.088
3
Fig. 1. Left: thermal conductivity measurement of two foam glass samples
with hot disk method, right: hot disk sensor consisting of coils (b) embedded in
foils (a).
dimensions radius (r), height (h) and mass (m) of the samples
were measured (Eq. (1))
m
ρb ¼ ð1Þ
ðπ Ur 2 UhÞ
Finally the total porosity (πt) was evaluated from true (ρt)
and bulk densities (Eq. (2))
ρ  ρb
πt ¼ t U100 ð2Þ
ρt
The microstructure of the glass foams with different water-
glass contents was studied with a scanning electron micro-
scope (XL30ESEM-FEG, FEI, Germany). For this
measurement, a fragment from the center of one sample was
polished and sputtered with carbon and the maximum pore size
could be obtained. To study the least pore size of about 4 nm a
mercury pressure porosimeter (PASCAL 140/440, Prototec
GmbH, Germany) was used.
To investigate the effect of waterglass during the glass
foaming process difference scanning calorimetry (DSC) and
thermogravimetry (TG) measurements according to DIN
51004–51007 were carried out using the STA 409 PC/PG
instrument of NETZSCH (Selb, Germany).
Furthermore, X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) was carried
out with the X-ray diffractometer X'pert PRO MPD PW 3040/
60 PANalitical (Philips, Germany). The sodium waterglass
was examined before and after temperature treatment. There-
fore, investigated samples were produced by drying the used
sodium waterglass. Hardening of waterglass happens due to
the contact with CO2 in air at room temperature [15]. One of
the two samples was additionally heated with the temperature
profile of the foam processing which is described at the
beginning of this part. Both samples were grounded in a
Vibratory Disc Mill (RS 200, Retsch, Germany). The samples
were comminuted within two minutes with 900 rpm. The
obtained powder was analyzed with the X-ray diffractometer
by using a copper anode of the Cu K α 1 series. Moreover,
20 wt% ZnO was added to the temperature treated powdered
sample to investigate the degree of crystallization of the
sample. The program X'Pert HighScore Plus (Version 2.2d,
4 D. Hesky et al. / Ceramics International ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]]
Fig. 2. Scheme of the splitting tensile strength measurement (a) foam glass is positioned between two plates; the arrows indicated the applied strength (b) foam
glass with crack after stress.
PANalytical, Netherlands) was used for analysis of the
obtained data. By means of Rietveld analysis, the amount
and composition of the crystalline phase content was
identified.
Additionally it was investigated, whether the reaction with
CO2 during the hardening process has an influence on the
chemical composition of the raw material mixtures or not.
Therefore, the blowing agent compositions as listed in Table 2
were added to the glass; afterwards the mixtures were air dried
at room temperature. Subsequently the powder mixtures were
examined by XRD measurement.
3. Results and discussion
The present research work investigates the possibility of
creating glass foams by using only waterglass or a combination
of waterglass and water as foaming agents. A combination of
water and waterglass was utilized because additional pores can
be formed through the evaporation of physically bonded water.
The glass powder used for the foam glass production had a
chemical composition in wt% of 72.1 SiO2, 1.0 Al2O3, 0.3
K2O, 0.1 Fe2O3, 3.8 MgO, 8.8 CaO and 13.9 Na2O.
The XRD investigation of the air dried glass and foaming
agent mixtures showed no change in chemical composition.
The X-ray spectra of the powders overlapped. Due to this
reason the hardening process during contact with CO2 changed
neither the chemistry nor influenced the foaming reaction
during heat treatment .
Please cite this article as: D. Hesky, et al., Water and waterglass mixtures for foam glass production, Ceramics International (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
ceramint.2015.06.088
Heat treatment at 800 1C for 30 min led to white, foamed
pellets (Fig. 3). The volume of the glass powder samples
increased corresponding to the waterglass content. The
improved foaming of the samples led to a higher volume
and a decreasing geometrical density with increasing water-
glass content.
The effect of waterglass during the glass foaming was
investigated with difference scanning calorimetry (Fig. 4) and
thermogravimetry measurements (Fig. 5). Therefore pure glass
powder and the unmixed waterglass as reference were used to
the analyzed powder compositions Wg50W0 and Wg6W24.
These two compositions were chosen to research the contribu-
tion of the foaming agent. Thus, the compositions with the
highest and lowest waterglass contents were selected.
In the data sheet of the used glass powder the softening
point is defined as 725 1C. Softening was attained by an
endotherm reaction with one strong peak at 100 1C and a
weight loss of 60%. The latter one is caused by the evaporation
of the free and physically bonded water of the sodium
waterglass under investigation. After this reaction, an exother-
mic interval with less weight loss indicated crystallization of
the lower melting SiO2 eutectic in waterglass at approximately
600 1C [16,17]. Further results of the waterglass crystallization
are obtained based on XRD reflection. At temperatures above
950 1C melting of the included SiO2 started, which led to a
decrease of the heat flow. For this reason, foaming is carried
out at only 800 1C.
Corresponding to the waterglass, the DSC-analysis of the
Wg50W0 composition showed an endotherm peak at 100 1C
 D. Hesky et al. / Ceramics International ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]] 5

Fig. 3. Side view of foamed pellets sintered at 800 1C (a) samples with water and waterglass (b) samples only with waterglass as foaming agent.

Fig. 4. Difference Scanning Calorimeter analysis of glass powder, waterglass,

the powder compositions Wg50W0 and Wg6W24.
Fig. 6. X-ray spectrum of waterglass dried and after heat treatment at 800 1C.

took place. In this high temperature range the dehydration

Fig. 5. Thermogravimetric analysis of glass powder, waterglass, the powder
compositions Wg50W0 and Wg6W24.
due to water vaporization. The observed weight loss of 20%
resulted from water vaporization from the included waterglass.
At 700 1C an additional exothermic peak shows that a reaction
process is not completed; for this reason the residue water
should be as hydrated form of silica [18].
The Wg6W24 curve also shows the high exothermic peak of
water vaporization. The weight loss is comparable with the
Wg50W0 composition, because the added foaming agents of
both samples included approximately 30 wt% water. Also an
exothermic interval was identified in Fig. 4. However, in
comparison to Wg50W0 the curve decreased similar to the pure
glass powder curve.
During the DSC and TG measurements, it was detected, that
reactions took place at temperatures around the softening point
of the glass. These reactions caused the foaming of the
samples.
By the DSC analysis crystallization of the lower melting
SiO2 eutectic in waterglass was detected during the heat
treatment of 200–1000 1C. To prove this crystallization, an
X-ray diffraction analysis was conducted. The heated sample is
denoted by “waterglass 800 1C” and the dried sample is

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6 D. Hesky et al. / Ceramics International ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]]

Fig. 7. Heating microscope pictures (a) of the sample Wg50W0 (b) of the pure glass powder and (c) of the pure waterglass.

denoted by “waterglass”. In Fig. 6 the X-ray spectra of these
samples are plotted. The waterglass spectrum showed the
characteristic progression of amorphous materials [19]. In
contrast to this, the heat treated waterglass sample presents
specific peaks. These peaks proved that crystallization of the
waterglass took place; the result of Rietveld analysis showed
that it consisted of low quarz and low cristobalite contents.
With addition of 20 wt% ZnO as a standard the crystalline
ratio of the sample was determined, 6.81 wt%, composed of
5.5 wt% low cristobalite (PDF no. 01-076-0936) and 1.3 wt%
low quartz (PDF no. 01-085-0797).
With the aid of the heating microscope the sample with the
highest waterglass content (Wg50W0) was examined. The
foaming process of this sample (Fig. 7(a) above 600 1C and

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ceramint.2015.06.088
 D. Hesky et al. / Ceramics International ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]] 7

Table 3
Porosity of the foam glass samples.

Composition True density Bulk density Total porosity

[g/cm3] [g/cm3] [vol%]

Wg6W24 2.72 1.56 42.71

Wg12W18 2.72 0.90 66.88
Wg18W12 2.73 0.61 77.32
Wg24W6 2.70 0.55 79.27
Wg20W0 2.74 0.59 78.13
Wg30W0 2.68 0.49 81.50
Wg40W0 2.73 0.47 82.65
Wg50W0 2.69 0.42 84.10

it is finished at 800 1C. This behavior was also determined by

the DSC measurements. The cause of foaming is the rapid
liberation of residue water, which generates the expansion
through the water vapour pressure [18]. The increase of the
sample volume between 800 and 850 1C is caused by growth
of the pores. Temperatures above 850 1C resulted in melting of
the glass.
As reverence to Wg50W0 a pressed sample was used only
consisting of glass powder. The volume of the glass sample in
Fig. 7(b) decreases until 800 1C during sintering of the glass
powder. With further temperature increase the glass melted.
Due to this reason foaming is only caused by the addition of
waterglass, see the heating microscope pictures of the pure
waterglass sample in Fig. 7(c). At 100 1C the volume of the
sample decreases due to the loss of not bonded water. Between
100 and 180 1C the sample shows a volume increase during
foaming because of the loss of physical and chemical bonded
residue water. With temperature increase above 600 1C the Fig. 8. Scanning electron microscopy pictures of the samples (a) Wg6W24, (b)
Wg12W8, (c) Wg18W12 and (d) Wg50W0.
glass begins to melt. By lowering the viscosity of the glass
melt, the bubbles disappear and at 1020 1C the sample is
completely melted.
The porosity of the samples was measured to identify, which waterglass an inhomogeneous cell structure was created. This
composition of foaming agent was most suitable to get a foam effect was primarily seen at samples with low waterglass
glass with high porosity and low thermal conductivity. The content. Examples are the sample Wg6W24 in Fig. 8(a) and the
total porosity of the samples was calculated with the aid of the sample Wg12W8 in Fig. 8(b). The scanning electron micro-
true density and geometrical bulk density. The results of these scope picture shows areas with pore sizes of few microns and
measurements are summarized in Table 3. With increase of the individual pores up to 300 mm or almost no porosity. The
waterglass content in the samples, the bulk density decreased. reason of this inhomogeneity is the low waterglass content.
Accordingly, the porosity of the samples increased. With This causes a difficult homogeneous distribution of the self-
higher waterglass contents improved foaming was achieved. same in mixtures such as Wg6W24 or Wg12W18. However, the
With the addition of 20 wt-% waterglass, the porosity of the inhomogeneous cell structure is also shown in samples with
samples increased about one to three percent and reached a higher waterglass content, but the difference in pore size is
value of 84 vol% by addition of 50 wt% waterglass. much lower. Moreover, the samples with waterglass content
The microstructure of the foamed samples is shown Fig. 8. over 18 wt% showed in a 150-fold magnification no areas
The first scanning electron microscope picture (Fig. 8(a) without porosity. For example the addition of only 6 wt%
represents the sample with the lowest waterglass content. waterglass led to areas with porosity but also to areas where
The waterglass content increases until the last picture and the glass powder only sintered. To produce a foam glass, the
the water content decreased. By means of these pictures, the added amount of waterglass should be as high as 18 wt% at a
influence of increasing waterglass content becomes visible, foaming temperature of 800 1C.
because the pore size of the samples increased up to 800 mm The thermal conductivity of porous materials depends on the
with increasing waterglass content. This effect was caused by heat transfer by conduction through the solid and gaseous
the higher waterglass content which generated a coalescence of phase and by radiation. With decreasing the solid content of
smaller pores to bigger ones. Moreover, during foaming with a material porosity increases and the thermal conductivity

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decreases [20]. With pore sizes higher than 5 mm convection

may occur and the thermal conductivity increases [21]. For
better thermal insulation a material with small porosity must be
selected.
The total porosity increases along with the waterglass
content and, hence, the thermal conductivity decreased as
shown in Fig. 9. For waterglass contents larger than 24 wt%
(Wg24W6) up to 50% the thermal conductivity does not change
significantly, and an average of 0.14 W/mK was measured.
These results are in accordance to the measured porosities of
the samples which do not change significantly from 24 wt% to
50 wt% waterglass. Only the pore size of these samples
increased, but this change does not strong effect upon on the
thermal conductivity.
To compare the strength of the produced samples with that
of conventional foam glass, the splitting tensile strength was
determined. The worse foamed samples have a higher density Fig. 9. Thermal conductivity of the samples depending on the waterglass
content (WgxWy ¼samples with water and waterglass, WgxW0¼ samples only
and thus a higher strength. Therefore, the samples with
with waterglass content).
additional water content show higher strength than the samples
which only include waterglass as foaming agent. The samples
Wg20W0 to Wg50W0 have higher porosity and for this reason
their strength was lower. In Fig. 10 the results of the measured
splitting tensile strength are shown and they are found to
decrease from 4.3 N/mm2 (Wg6W24) to 1.8 N/mm2
(Wg18W12). The latter once has nearly the same strength as
Wg24W6, because their pore forming waterglass content is
almost the same. The strength of the samples, which were
foamed only with waterglass, was lower than in the samples
with additional water. All samples with a waterglass content of
about 18 wt% achieve nearly the same strength around 1.9 N/
mm2, because the bulk densities of these samples have almost
the same value with an average of 0.49 g/cm3.
The samples of the composition Wg50W0 have the highest
porosity; accordingly this composition was selected to test the
advantageous foaming temperature for the resulting properties.
Fig. 11 shows splitting tensile strength and thermal conductiv-
ity of this samples after temperature treatments at 600, 700,
800 and 900 1C. The thermal conductivity is found to decrease Fig. 10. Splitting tensile strength of the samples depending on the waterglass
content (WgxWy¼ samples with water and waterglass, WgxW0¼samples only
with increasing foaming temperature. The samples tempered at
with waterglass content).
800 1C have the highest strength. With higher temperature the
porosity of the sample increased and at this reason the strength
of these samples decreased. After temperature treatment at 600 cavities are conducted with the crack initiation during the
and 700 1C nearly the same strength level could be measured. splitting tensile strength test. Thus the samples of the
The strength at 600 1C is a little higher, because at this composition Wg40W0 and Wg50W0 did not have as many
temperature the waterglass does not foam, as seen in Fig. 7(a). cavities inside. A reason of the lower influence of the cavities
The strength of the samples tempered at 700 1C is lower in samples with high waterglass content was the higher
because of the pore amount inside. The best heat treatment porosity level of these samples. The higher waterglass content
temperature of the composition Wg50W0 is obtained for led to a uniform porosity with less or smaller cavities.
800 1C yielding the highest strength at low thermal The Wg50W0 samples showed the highest porosities. For
conductivity. this reason, an investigation was made about the transferability
The standard deviations of the samples with low waterglass of the properties of the cylindrical samples to larger sized ones.
content were very high. A reason for this is the inhomogeneity In Fig. 13 a sample of the Wg50W0 composition with the
of the samples, which is seen in the SEM pictures (Fig. 8). dimensions of 17.5  20  44 cm3 is shown. With the hight of
Less waterglass content resulted in samples with higher 17 cm the foam glass is expanded beyond the mullite bonded
density. In the area of fracture of these samples, often a cavity SiC form. The maximum pore size was 4 mm and it was higher
was found. Two of them are marked in the Fig. 12, which than that of the cylindrical samples. The total porosity which
shows the fracture surface of the sample Wg18W12. These could be determined with Eqs. (1) and (2) was 91 vol%.

Please cite this article as: D. Hesky, et al., Water and waterglass mixtures for foam glass production, Ceramics International (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
ceramint.2015.06.088
 D. Hesky et al. / Ceramics International ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]]
Fig. 11. Splitting tensile strength and thermal conductivity measured at room
temperature for samples Wg50W0 after heat treatment at 600, 700, 800 and
900 1C.
Fig. 12. Sample Wg18W12 with cavities in the marked area.
The thermal conductivities were measured at room tempera-
ture, 250 1C and at 500 1C. The letter temperature was chosen
because at 500 1C the sample does not deform as shown in
Fig. 7(a). With increasing the temperature from 25 1C, 250 1C
and 500 1C the thermal conductivity was found to be 0.15 W/
mK, 0.19 W/mK and 0.35 W/mK respectively. The value at
room temperature is comparable to 0.14 W/mK, as measured at
the cylindrical sample. The increased thermal conductivity
could be caused by the higher pore size inside the sample. The
highest pore size which could be measured at these samples
was 4 mm but inside the sample there could be pores with
higher size. The thermal conductivity increases by convection
with pore sizes higher than 5 mm [21] as mentioned above. For
this reason the properties of the cylindrical samples could not
be transferred exactly to those samples with higher dimension.
To achieve this aim the temperature treatment for the prepara-
tion of the larger samples must be adjusted for example by
reduction the dwell time at the maximum temperature.
4. Conclusions
Several foaming agents for the production of foam glass
composed of a mixture of water and waterglass or only
waterglass were studied. The results showed that foaming
only by using waterglass as foaming agent was possible. It was
established that the increasing waterglass content in the
foaming agent leads to higher porosity, which is associated
Please cite this article as: D. Hesky, et al., Water and waterglass mixtures for foam glass production, Ceramics International (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
ceramint.2015.06.088
9
Fig. 13. Sample Wg50W0 with dimension 17.5  20  44 cm3.
with decreasing strength and thermal conductivity. The addi-
tion of 50 wt% waterglass to the used glass powder led to the
highest porosity with 84 vol%, a splitting tensile strength of
1.7 N/mm2 and a thermal conductivity of 0.14 W/mK. The
measured total porosity was compatible with data of commer-
cial foam glass and the strength of samples was higher
compared to industrial foam glasses [22]. The optimum
foaming temperature for the composition with 50 wt% water-
glass was 800 1C. Moreover the foamglass could be produced
in dimensions 17.5  20  44 cm3, which is practicable to
investigate the characteristically properties of subsequent
application.
In summary, by only using waterglass an alternative
foaming agent was found and during processing of the samples
no gases are released, which might cause an environmental
problem [18]. The produced foam glass can be used as a
promising lightweight material, due to the higher strength at
the porosity level of 84 vol%.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the Europäischer Sozialfond
(ESF) and Sächsische AufbauBank (SAB) for their financial
support of the project SAB 100109651. Moreover, thanks to
Dr.-Ing. Gert Schmidt (Institute of Ceramic, Glass and Con-
struction Materials, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Freiberg,
Germany) for the scanning electron microscopy analysis.
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