Glass-ceramics obtained by the recycling of end of life cathode ray tubes glasses

This work is concerned with open-loop recycling of end of life Cathode Ray Tubes glass (an unsolved problem when considering that in Europe almost 90% of EOL electronic goods is disposed of in landfills), focusing on the development of glass-ceramics from panel or funnel glass with dolomite and alumina, and the evaluation of the tendency towards crystallisation with particular attention on composition and thermal treatment. Glasses were melted at a temperature of about 1500 °C and transformed into glass-ceramics by different thermal treatments (900 °C to 1100 °C temperature range and 0.5 to 8 h soaking time). By using the evaluation of thermal, mineralogical and microstructural data it has been pointed out that a good degree of crystallisation is reached at about 1000 °C and with a high proportion of waste glass (50–75%) if 40–45% of CaO and MgO bearer (dolomite) is introduced. In this way alkaline and alkaline-earth silicate and aluminosilicate mainly develop probably with a surface mechanism.