Thermally Tunable Glass Foams with Controllable Pore Size via Network Manipulation: A Melt-Casting and Float-Manufacturable Glass Foaming Method

Abstract

Glass foams are being widely used as constructional materials due to their unique properties in thermal insulation, fire retardation, and shockwave absorption. However, the cost of energy consumption and processes in a conventional glass foam production limited the use of glass foams as sustainable materials. In this study, for the very first time, thermally tunable CaO–SnO2–P2O5–SiO2 glass foams with controllable pore size were presented as a novel category of melt-casting and float-manufacturable glasses. It was found that the pore size and thermal properties become tunable by manipulating the glass network, i.e., connecting linear chained Sn–P network with [SiO4] units. In addition, the unique combination of thermal properties and porous structure of CaO–SnO2–P2O5–SiO2 glasses shows potential in float glass foam production, which can produce glass foams sheet-by-sheet with less complexity in manufacturing processes.