Thermal insulating foams produced from glass waste and banana leaves

Abstract

In this work, compositions containing transparent glass bottles and banana leaves (desiccated and crushed), with different mass fractions (30-50%), were prepared for obtaining cellular materials for thermal insulation purposes. The formulated and prepared compositions were uniaxially pressed (10 MPa) and the compact powders fired between 700 and 850°C for 30 min in order to investigate the effect of the banana leaves on the formation of pores and on the thermal and mechanical properties of the processed glass foams. The results indicated that the obtained glass foams with porosities between 58.5 and 87.5%, compressive strength ranging between 1.17 and 3.50 MPa and thermal conductivity ranging between 0.06 and 0.15 W/mK, are potential candidates to work as thermal insulators with appropriate properties for a specific application.