Use of coffee husk ash for preparation of glass-ceramics as potential sealants for solid oxide cells

In this work, glass-ceramic materials are obtained from a precursor glass in which coffee husk ash is used as a K2O source. We demonstrate an analysis based on the structural, thermal and microstructural properties of the constituent materials. The final sintered bodies consist of diopside and nepheline crystals embedded into a glassy phase. These materials offer unique advantages as sealants for solid oxide cells (SOCs), with thermal expansion coefficients similar to those of other SOC components (9–10 × 10−6 °C−1) and Vicker's microhardness values of ∼7 GPa. These results indicate the feasibility of obtaining glass-ceramics by an environment friendly route, using coffee husk ash instead of commercial potassium carbonate.