Low Li2O content study in Li2O-Al2O3-SiO2 glass-ceramics

Abstract

The price of lithium-containing minerals and other chemical materials continues to increase, resulting in an increase in the production cost of Li2O-Al2O3-SiO2 (LAS) system glass-ceramics. In the LAS glass-ceramics component, the reduction in the amount of Li2O used can reduce the cost of the product. It is worthwhile to study whether it is possible to prepare glass-ceramics with low expansion properties under low Li2O content. The effect of Li2O content on the glass-ceramics of LAS system was studied. In this paper, spodumene was used as the main raw material, and TiO2 and ZrO2 were added as crystal nucleating agents to prepare transparent glass-ceramics with low expansion coefficient. The effects of the change of Li2O content on the crystal phase and microstructure of glass-ceramics were investigated by XRD, DSC, FTIR and SEM. The results show that the main crystalline phase of the low expansion transparent glass-ceramics is β-quartz solid solution. When Li2O content is in the range of 2.99 wt% to 4.13 wt%, low expansion glass ceramics can be prepared by an appropriate method. With the increase of Li2O content, the average coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) in the temperature range of 30 °C–300 °C shows a decreasing trend. When Li2O content is in the range of 3.51 wt% to 4.13 wt%, the thermal expansion coefficient of the glass ceramics is extremely small, and even a negative expansion coefficient occurs.