A New Insight into the Influence of Fluid Inclusions in High-Purity Quartz Sand on the Bubble Defects in Quartz Glass: A Case Study from Vein Quartz in the Dabie Mountain

Abstract

A purification process including flotation separation, acid leaching, calcination, and water quenching was conducted to obtain high-purity quartz sand. The surface morphology of the quartz after flotation separation, acid leaching, calcination, and water quenching reveals that the cracks, pits, and cavities on the quartz surface can be deepened and enlarged, and the more fluid inclusions, the greater the number and openness of cracks, pits, and cavities. The specific surface area is positively correlated with the number of cracks, pits, and cavities, the opacity of quartz glass, and the number of bubbles in quartz glass. The results of Raman spectroscopy analysis reveal that the bubbles in quartz glass are composed of nitrogen, which excludes the possibility of bubble formation in quartz glass caused by the gas composition (i.e., H2O) of unburst fluid inclusions in quartz sand. The formation of bubbles in quartz glass is more likely to be related to a high specific surface area and porosity, which increase the surface adsorption performance of quartz and contribute to the adsorption of more gas. The presented results suggest that using these methods to reduce the content of fluid inclusions in quartz cannot effectively solve the problem of bubbles in quartz glass, and using quartz raw materials with no or minor fluid inclusions is still the key to ensuring the quality of quartz products.