The structural and electrical properties of basaltic glasses modified by ZnO

In order to investigate the structural and electrical properties of basaltic glass modified by ZnO, ZnO-modified basaltic glasses were prepared by the conventional melt-cooling method. The relationship between glass structure and electrical properties was investigated using XRD, FT-IR, Raman, DSC, dielectric properties tester and volume resistance tester. The results show that when ZnO doping is lower than 6 wt%, it does not lead to basalt glass crystallization. The ZnO doping shows roughly a linear relationship with the volume resistivity, but the trend is not obvious. The optimum doping of ZnO was 4 wt%, at this doping level, the glass network was the most connected with the lowest values of dielectric constant (6.5) and dielectric loss (0.005). This finding provides theoretical support for the replacement of E-glass fibers by basalt fibers in terms of dielectric properties.