Optical, magnetic and electrical properties of new ceramics/lead silicate glass composites recycled from lead crystal wastes.

Nowadays, the disposal of industrial wastes is an ablaze issue worldwide, especially those containing hazardous materials. Lead silicate glass waste (LSG) produced during lead crystal glass manufacturing, which contains about 30% of toxic lead compounds, belongs to this category. This work aims to adopt an innovative clean method to convert this waste into novel advanced ceramic materials via an environmental friendly method. Chromia Cr2O3 and hematite Fe2O3 ceramics with different content (0, 5, 10, 15%) are added separately to the solid wastes of LSG recovered from national crystal glass industry to obtain various ceramics/LSG composites by pressureless sintering methods. Different properties of the produced composites are evaluated in terms of phase's identification and microstructural features. Optical properties in terms of absorbance, reflectance, band gap (Eg), refractive index (n) and photoluminescence (PL) are investigated. Magnetic and electrical properties are inclusively studied. Results indicated that, an addition of chromia and hematite as well as increasing their content to 15% has enhanced the microstructural features, optical, electrical and magnetic properties of the obtained composites. Cr2O3/LSG composites are considered as promising optical and electrical materials. However, Fe2O3/LSG composites showed the highest optical and magnetic properties. They are strongly recommended in optoelectronic and magneto-optical applications.