Sintered porous glass-ceramics formed using starch

• Grant number: 08/06210-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2008
• End date: September 30, 2009
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Nonmetallic Materials
• Principal Investigator: Eduardo Bellini Ferreira
• Grantee: Alan Roberto Pinto
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia (FEG). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Guaratinguetá. Guaratinguetá , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The search of new methods of fabrication of glass-ceramics with tailored porosity and permeability is of interest from the industrial and commercial point of views, as well as a complex challenge. Porous glass-ceramics, which are obtained by sintering and controlled crystallization of glasses, may find application e.g. as filters, antibacterial materials, bio-implants, and enzyme or catalysis substrates, among others. An alternative low-cost fabrication method of obtaining ceramics with different porosity levels, for several applications, is the forming aided by the starch addition, also known as starch consolidation. We propose here to use a commercial window glass, in the system Na2O-CaO-SiO2, which has its sintering and crystallization kinetics known from the literature, to study the starch consolidation as a method to produce porous glass-ceramics. The starch consolidation is innovative for the production of glass-ceramics and the developing of such technology may be the path to obtaining a new class of materials. We planned to study and find the best production conditions for obtaining materials with customized pore size, concentration and connectivity, using window glass. After the development of the process, our goal is to use glasses with special compositions and thus specific properties for the production of sintered glass-ceramics with tailored porosity for several technological applications.