Microwave Absorption of Barium Borosilicate, Zinc Borate, Fe-Doped Alumino-Phosphate Glasses and Its Raw Materials

This study presents microwave absorption of raw materials used in barium borosilicate, Fe-doped alumina phosphate and zinc borate glass. Microwave absorption was investigated for the raw materials SiO2, Na2CO3, BaCO3, BPO4, Al(PO3)3, Mg(PO3)2, Al(OH)3, TiO2. The study shows that SiO2 could be heated directly above 1000 °C within 30 min at 1.5 kW microwave output (MW) power and 0.8 kW MW power is necessary to initiate heating (from 260 °C). Microwave heating of material with low dielectric loss has been investigated by increasing MW power. Microwave absorption of above glass systems has also been investigated. Dielectric properties such as loss tangent of glass as a function of temperature are presented. Glass melting under direct microwave heating was demonstrated for the studied glass systems. Temperature-Microwave power-Time (T-P-t) profiles for the three glasses indicate maximum MW output power ~1 kW, 0.65 kW and ~1 kW for barium borosilicate, zinc borate glass and alumino-phosphate glass for 60 g glass melting.