Al2O3 effect on thermal, optical and mechanical properties of agro-food wastes derived glasses

Glasses are synthesized using agro-food waste products as a sustainable asset, including egg-shell powder, maize husk and sugarcane leaf ashes via melt quench method using two different crucibles to understand the effect of Al 2 O 3 pick up from alumina crucible. The thermal, theoretical optical as well as mechanical parameters of the synthesized glasses are investigated. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results confirm that those glasses synthesized in an alumina crucible have increased the sintering window and glass-forming ability. The Al 2 O 3 content increase the values of optical basicity, oxide ion polarizability, and refractive index. Mechanical properties also show significant change in the values of elastic modulus, Young’s modulus, shear modulus and Longitudinal modulus for the glasses synthesized in alumina crucible. The results revealed that the presence of higher content of alumina (pick up from crucible) in the glasses, the network become more compact as compared to glasses synthesized in Pt-Rh crucible. These findings open up new possibilities for applying the current glasses to non-linear optical applications.