Influences of refining temperatures on properties of hollow glass microspheres

To regulate and control the quality and properties of hollow glass microspheres (HGMs) for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) targets, we investigated the effects of refining temperatures on the percentages of qualified HGMs for ICF targets in glass shell batches. The geometry, tensile strength, permeability, surface roughness and chemical durability of HGMs produced under different refining temperatures were also tested. The results show that increasing the refining temperature is not always favorable for improving the quality and properties of resulting HGMs. When the refining temperature is lower than 1 600 ℃, the percentages of qualified HGMs for ICF targets increase with the refining temperature. When the refining temperature is higher than 1 600 ℃, the yield decreases rapidly with the further increase of the refining temperature. The tensile strength，surface roughness and hydrogen permeability of the resulting HGMs can be improved notably by increasing the refining temperature. However, the chemical durability of HGMs at ambient condition can be reduced remarkably under higher refining temperatures.