Abstract
Foaming effect strongly impacts the physical and mechanical properties of foam glass materials, but an understanding of its mechanism especially at the molecular level is still limited. In this study, the foaming effects of dextrin, a mixture of dextrin and carbon, and different carbon allotropes are investigated with respect to surface morphology as well as physical and mechanical properties, in which 1 wt.% carbon black is identified as an optimal choice for a well-balanced material property. More importantly, the different foaming effects are elucidated by all-atomistic molecular dynamics simulations with molecular-level insights into the structure–property relationships. The results show that smaller pores and more uniform pore structure benefit the mechanical properties of the foam glass samples. The foam glass samples show excellent chemical and thermal stability with 1 wt.% carbon as the foaming agent. Furthermore, the foaming effects of CaSO4 and Na2HPO4 are investigated, which both create more uniform pore structures. This work may inspire more systematic approaches to control foaming effect for customized engineering needs by establishing molecular-level structure–property–process relationships, thereby, leading to efficient production of foam glass materials with desired foaming effects.
Highlights
To address the above challenges, in this study, first, we studied the foaming effect of dextrin, a mixture of dextrin and carbon, and different carbon allotropes by characterizing surface morphology with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and physical and mechanical properties, in which 1 wt.% carbon black was identified as an optimal choice for a balanced material property
This led to the amount of carbon 1 wt.% [17], dextrin 2.5 wt.%, or a mixture of carbon 0.5 wt.% and dextrin 1.75 wt.%, together with the previously determined basic composition of H3 BO3 13 wt.%, SiO2 60 wt.%, Na2 CO3 17 wt.%, K2 CO3 5 wt.%, and Al2 O3 5 wt.% for the foam glass samples [17]
The foaming effect was further elucidated by characterizing the structural configuration at the molecular level with MD simulations
Summary
The effects of a number of chemical additions, such as chromic oxide, cobaltous oxide, antimonous oxide, manganese dioxide, lead oxide, and antimony trioxide, have been studied to improve the physical and mechanical properties of foam glass materials [6,11,12,13,14,15]. Efficient preparation of foam glass materials with high performance and low cost, such as high strength and low density with a low sintering temperature and commercially inexpensive foaming agents and additions, remains to be a challenge. This is primarily due to a lack of understanding of the structure–property–process relationships of the foaming effect at the molecular level
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