【正文】
itated phase, since nuclei may be formed without the impedance of the surrounding materials, taking into account the volume variation from glass to crystal. the DSC curves of the blended mixture. The small endothermic peak (737–741 ℃ ) indicates the molecular rearrangement in this temperature. The exothermic peak (800–900 ℃ ) corresponds to the crystallization reaction of the glass. With 5 wt% potash feldspar additive, the glass powders have an intense exothermic effect at 840 ℃ , indicating the formation and growth crystals. With more potash feldspar additive, the exothermic peak increases slightly. Therefore, a nucleation temperature in the range of 720–760 ℃ and a crystallization temperature in the range of 800–900 ℃ were employed, respectively. the SEM images of the samples. The results show that crystallization is mainly induced by surface nucleation in samples K8 and K10, but by both surface and bulk nucleation in sample K5 since crystallization take place throughout the entire volume in the sample. Uniform, ultrafine crystalline grains with sizes of 2–5 mm exist in sample K5. In contrast, there are only small amounts of crystalline phases in K8 and K10 as shown by XRD patterns (). Alkali feldspar crystals are known to give excellent glasses but they are unable to be crystallized in practical periods of time. They have been successfully developed by exploiting the tendency of powdered glass to devitrify during appropriate heat treatments in recent works . Our results show glass powder with 5 wt% potash feldspar can be successfully devitrified during the heat treatment because potash feldspar can act as fluxing agents during sintering process thus decrease the sintering temperature and reduce the viscosity of glass. The value of viscosity during sintering and crystallization is very important. If the value of viscosity is too low, crystallization will be too fast, which can hinder sintering and creates a large amount of porosities. On the other hand, if the value of viscosity is too high, crystallization is difficult. Therefore, controlling the glass viscosity is very important. With more potash feldspar additive, the crystallization rate of the glass will decrease. According to our experimental data add 5 wt% potash fe