Opaque silica glass fabricated by slip casting and sintering (Part 3) - Evaluation of physical, chemical and mechanical properties

Physical, chemical and mechanical properties of opaque silica glass fabrica ted by the slip casting method were evaluated and compared with commercial products manufactured by the fusion method. The slip casting sample contain ed a large number of small bubbles, and exhibited a higher light scattering coefficient and higher ability as a thermal radiation barrier. These featu res were well described in terms of the variation of the total surface area of bubbles per unit volume, Due to the smaller size of the bubbles, other properties such as bending strength, surface roughness and chemical durabil ity, were considerably improved as compared to those of the fusion samples.