Characterization of transparent glaze for single-crystalline anorthite porcelain

The objective of this work was to design a transparent glaze for matching single-crystalline anorthite porcelain. Excessive amounts of quartz were used in glaze to improve surface hardness. Technological properties including hardness and thermal shock resistance were investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies were also carried out to analyze the microstructure. The phases found in glaze were aluminosilicate glass, quartz and cristobalite crystals. The Vickers hardness of the transparent glaze was about 2.48 GPa, which was much higher than that of commercial soft glaze and was close to hard porcelain glaze due to forming dispersed crystal particles (quartz and cristobalite) in the glass matrix. Moreover, the thermal expansion coefficient of the glaze was slightly lower than that of porcelain body which was easy to produce compressive stress in glaze surface to increase the strength of porcelain. And no cracks were observed on glaze surface after heat exchange three times from 220 °C to 25 °C, presenting excellent thermal shock resistance.