KR100346121B1 - Fabrication method of crack-free silica glass using sol-gel process - Google Patents

Abstract

Method for producing a silica-free silica glass using a sol-gel method comprising the step of treating the organic material in the dried gel according to the present invention, the first step of measuring the weight of the dried gel; A second step of measuring a volume of the dried gel; A third step of calculating a density from the weight and volume of the gel calculated in the first step and the second step; A fourth step of comparing the density of the gel calculated in the third step with a preset reference density; And a fifth process of sending only the gel having a density less than the reference density to the organic material treatment process through the fourth process.

Description

FABRRICATION METHOD OF CRACK-FREE SILICA GLASS USING SOL-GEL PROCESS}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to silica glass production, and more particularly, to silica glass production using a sol-gel process.

In the sol-gel process, silica glass is prepared by placing a raw material in a sol state into a mold, forming a gel, and then sintering. The sol-gel method is a very useful manufacturing method for producing silica glass because it is made at a relatively low temperature, low production cost, and easy to control the composition.

1 is a flow chart showing a silica glass manufacturing process by a conventional sol-gel method. As shown in FIG. 1, the silica glass manufacturing process by the sol-gel process is largely divided into a mixing / dispersing process (11), a molding process (12), a demolding process (13), and a drying process (14). ), Organic material treatment process 15 and sintering process (16).

The mixing and dispersing process 11 is a process of making a uniform sole by mixing a starting material with deionized water and mixing and dispersing an additive such as a dispersant.

As the starting material, silicon alkoxide or fumed silica is used. The method of using the silicon alkoxide is in British Patent No. 2,041,913 (METHOD FOR PRODUCING MOTHER ROD FOR OPTICAL FIBERS), which was invented and patented by Matsuyama Iwao et al., And the method of using the fumed silica is Johnson, Jr. US Patent No. 4,419,115, which was invented and patented by Jr., et al.

The molding process 12 is a process of putting the brush produced by the mixing and dispersing process 11 into a mold having a certain shape and gelling. The sol is added with a binder and a gelling promoter for bonding between sol particles. The mold is formed using stainless steel, acryl, polystylene, or teflon materials. A mold for forming a substrate tube or overjacketing tube has a shape in which a central rod is inserted into a cylinder. The method of supplying a brush to the mold may include a method of pouring a brush into a mold, a method of supplying a brush into a mold by using a height difference between a mold and a sole reservoir, but mainly a pump due to a risk of impurity inflow and productivity problems. A method of forcing a brush into a mold by a pump is used.

The demolding process 13 is a process of separating and aging the gel formed in the mold from the mold through the molding process 12. The demolding process 13 is also performed in a water tank to prevent damage to the gel that may occur during demolding.

The drying process 14 is a process of drying a tube-shaped gel separated from a mold using a drying means such as a constant temperature and humidity chamber. The gel forms a porous retinal structure while the moisture contained therein evaporates.

The organic material treatment process 15 decomposes organic substances such as residual moisture and binder in the gel through low temperature heat treatment, and heats them in a chlorine (Cl) gas atmosphere to remove alkali metal impurities and hydroxyl groups (OH) in the gel. It's a process.

The sintering process 16 is a process of producing silica glass to be finally obtained by sintering and vitrifying the tubular gel which has undergone the organic material processing process 15.

The sintering process 16 is performed by heating the dried and organic material treated gel to about 1400 ° C. in a sintering furnace under a helium (He) gas atmosphere. At the end of the sintering process 16, a high purity silica glass substrate tube or overjacketed tube is obtained.

Silica glass manufacturing method by the sol-gel method as described above is invented and patented by Chandros et al. US Patent No. 5,240,488 It is disclosed in detail.

However, in the silica glass manufacturing method using the conventional sol-gel method, when the heat-treated gel is added to the organic material treatment process for the purpose of removing residual moisture, organic additives, alkali metal impurities and hydroxyl groups therein. In addition, since the temperature increase rate has a close effect on the cracking of the gel, the incidence of cracking of the gel due to excessive water content during the water removal section of the gel was very high in an inappropriate heat treatment process.

In order to solve the above problems, an object of the present invention is to prepare a crack-free silica glass using a sol-gel method that can prevent the occurrence of cracking of the gel generated in the organic material treatment process due to the excessive moisture content of the gel. To provide.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method for producing a silica-free silica glass using a sol-gel method comprising the step of treating the organic matter in the dried gel,

A first step of measuring the weight of the dried gel;

A second step of measuring a volume of the dried gel;

A third step of calculating a density from the weight and volume of the gel calculated in the first step and the second step;

A fourth step of comparing the density of the gel calculated in the third step with a preset reference density; And

And a fifth process of sending only the gel having a density less than the reference density to the organic material treatment process through the fourth process.

1 is a flow chart showing a silica glass manufacturing process by a conventional sol-gel method,

Figure 2 is a flow chart showing a crack-free silica glass manufacturing process using the sol-gel method according to an embodiment of the present invention,

3 is a detailed flowchart of the density discrimination process shown in FIG. 2;

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the present invention, if it is determined that detailed descriptions of related known functions or configurations may unnecessarily obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

2 is a flow chart showing a crack-free silica glass manufacturing process using the sol-gel method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows that the density discrimination process 25 is added between the drying process 13 and the organic material treatment process 15 in the silica glass manufacturing process shown in FIG. 1. The mixing / dispersion process 21, the molding process 22, the demolding process 23, the drying process 24, the organic matter treatment process 26 and the sintering process 27 except for the density discrimination process 25 are conventional Since the description is the same as described above, a description thereof will be omitted.

The density discrimination process 25 is added to minimize the incidence of cracking of the gel generated due to excessive moisture content of the gel when the gel dried in the drying process 24 is heat treated in the organic material treatment process 26. It is a process. The method of measuring the moisture content of the gel may be introduced in various ways, but the reason for adding the density discrimination process 25 in the present invention is that the moisture content of the gel directly affects the density of the gel. This is due to the fact that the density measurement of the gel can be made very simply. That is, the volume of the gel may be measured for each gel introduced into the mold, but may be constant based on experimental data that the volume per unit area of the gel is almost the same or the degree of change is almost uniform. Therefore, it is possible to calculate the density of the gel by measuring only the weight of the gel.

3 is a detailed flowchart of the density discrimination process 25 shown in FIG. The density discrimination process 25 is subdivided into a total of five processes as shown in FIG.

In the first step 31, the weight of the dried gel is measured with a balance.

In the second process 32, the outer diameter, the inner diameter and the length of the dried gel are measured, and the volume of the dried gel is calculated according to Equation 1 below.

Here, V is the volume of the gel, L is the length of the gel, OD is the outer diameter of the gel, ID is the inner diameter of the gel. The gel volume calculation as described above may be repeated for each gel, but in practice, the gel volume is uniform in the degree of change unlike the weight of the gel. Therefore, the average value of a plurality of sample volume values can be calculated and used as the volume value of another gel.

In the third process 33, the density of the gel is calculated by substituting the weight value and the volume value of the gel calculated in the processes 31 and 32 into Equation 2 below.

Where ρ is the density of the gel and W is the weight of the gel.

In a fourth step 34, the calculated density of the gel is compared with a preset reference density. In this case, the reference density is set to a limit value at which no crack occurs in the gel during the heat treatment by adding the dried gel to the organic material treatment process 26 in a subsequent process.

In the fifth process 35, only the gel having a density less than the reference density is added to the organic material treatment process 26 shown in FIG. That is, the present invention is to determine the moisture content of the dried gel through the density discrimination process 25, when the moisture content is excessive, the gel is dried a little more and does not enter the organic material treatment process 26, the moisture content The gel is added to the organic matter treatment process 26 only when it is below the appropriate level.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the reference density was set to 1.045 g / cc. As a result, the process yield, which was about 30% in the related art, was increased to 95%.

As described above, the method for preparing crack-free silica glass using the sol-gel method according to the present invention is to determine the moisture content of the dried gel based on the density of the dried gel, so that only the gel having the appropriate moisture content is used in the organic material treatment process. There is an advantage that it can prevent the occurrence of cracks in the organic matter treatment process of the gel by adding.

Claims (3)

In the manufacturing method of silica glass using a sol-gel method comprising the step of treating the organic matter in the dried gel, A first step of measuring the weight of the dried gel; A second step of measuring a volume of the dried gel; A third step of calculating a density from the weight and volume of the gel calculated in the first step and the second step; A fourth step of comparing the density of the gel calculated in the third step with a preset reference density; And a fifth process of sending only a gel having a density less than the reference density to the organic material treatment process through the fourth process. The method of claim 1, The reference density is 1.045 g / cc method of producing a silica-free silica glass using a sol-gel method. The method of claim 1, The gel density calculation of the third process is the following equation, ρ = W / (π × L × ((OD / 2) ^2- (ID / 2) ² )) (ρ: gel density, W: weight of gel, L: length of gel, OD: outer diameter of gel, ID: inner diameter of gel) Method for producing a crack-free silica glass using a sol-gel method, characterized in that calculated by.