Microstructure And Performance Of Ceramic Glaze

In order to improve the quality of ceramic glaze, the effect of six kinds of zirconium silicate industrial materials on the structure and properties of ceramic glaze was explored in this work. The relationship between structure and performance of the ceramic glaze was analyzed, and the optimal raw materials of these six kinds of zirconium silicate industrial materials was chosen. Furthermore, the tourmaline mineral materials were added to improve the easy-cleaning properties of the ceramic glaze. This work provides theoretical and practical guidance for the preparation of high quality functional ceramic with easy-cleaning properties.The particle size, crystal structure and microstructure of zirconium silicate industrial materials were analyzed by using Laser Particle Size Analyzer, X-Ray Diffractometer, Scanning Electron Microscope, respectively. The whiteness, gloss and hardness of the ceramic prepared using different zirconium silicate industrial materials were also tested. It is shown that zirconium silicate industrial materials with its D50 between 2-3μm and D90-D10 between 8-28μm is the most suitable for the preparation of high quality ceramic. The glaze exhibited the best quality with whiteness 82.69 Wb, glossiness 95.1 Gs, microhardness 696 HV. The microstructure analysis shows that large numbers of uniform zirconium silicate particles with size of 0.5-1.0μm exist in the high quality ceramic glaze layer. It was found that zirconium silicate crystallized on ones that didn’t melt in the glaze in the high magnification observation of ceramic glaze’s microstructure. Analysis of the movement of zirconium silicate in the glaze shows that reducing the formation of bubbles is an effective way to ensure the uniform distribution of zirconium silicate. The uniform particles are beneficial for the improvement of the surface roughness and glossiness, and the hardness of the ceramic glaze can be increased effectively due to high hardness of the zirconium silicate at the same time.On the basis of ensuring the basic quality of the glaze, adding tourmaline mineral materials can also improve the easy-cleaning property. It turns out that the easy-cleaning property of the glaze is the best when the addition of the tourmaline mineral materials is 2wt.%. The unit area of residual oil of the ceramic glaze is as much as 0.192 g·m-2, which completely meets the standards about the easy-cleaning properties of the domestic ceramic. No tourmaline phase was found in the glaze, which turns out that the tourmaline has melt in the glaze and participated in the formation of glass phase. Additionally, it can be found that surface free energy and the percentage of polar component of glaze increase with the addition of tourmaline, which contributes to the improvement of the easy-cleaning property of the ceramic glaze. The hightest value of surface free energy and the percentage of polar component were 62.79mN·m-1 and 78.20%, respectively.