LAUSR

Abstract Extracted titanium tailing, a large amount of solid waste produced from Panzhihua in China, not only occupies a lot of lands, but also seriously pollutes the environment. Glass-ceramic foams could be synthesized using extracted titanium tailing as a raw material, mixed with glass waste, foaming agent Na2CO3 and fluxing agent B2O3 by a simple powder foaming method. The effects of preparing conditions such as sintering temperature (760–790 °C), sintering time (10–40 min), Na2CO3 content (0–3 wt%) and B2O3 content (0–3 wt%) on the micromorphology have been systematically investigated by scanning electron microscopy. The crystallinity, compressive strength, thermal conductivity, and thermal expansion coefficient are investigated by X-ray diffraction, electronic universal testing machine, heat flow method and thermal dilatometer. The pore size, percent, and distribution of the glass-ceramic foams can be controllably prepared by adjusting the preparing conditions. And the pore structure plays an important role in determining the apparent density, compressive strength, thermal conductivity, and thermal expansion coefficient. The glass-ceramic foam has a low apparent density of 0.30 ± 0.01 g cm−3, an available compressive strength of 1.0 ± 0.1 MPa, a thermal conductivity of 0.060 ± 0.002 W m−1 °C −1, a high porosity of 88.0% and an average thermal expansion coefficient of 5.27 × 10−6 m m−1 °C−1 under the optimal preparation parameters, indicating that the glass-ceramic foam could be widely used in construction and building industry.