THE EFFECT OF OPACIFIERS ON SURFACE ROUGHNESS OF CERAMIC GLAZES

Surface smoothness of ceramic glazes is always an important characteristic of ceramic glazes as a point of surface engineering studies. Surface roughness affects chemical resistivity, glossiness and stainabiliy of glazes. In fact, less surface roughness improves cleanability of the surface by the least usage amount of detergents. In this investigation, surface topography of two common opaque glazes, zirconia and titania-based, has been investigated. Crystallinity of the surface has been studied from SEM images, and comparison of EDS elemental results with phase analysis results of XRD. Surface roughness profile measured by Marsurf M300, shows that titania-based glaze is almost 24% percentage more smooth than zirconia based glaze. Surface smoothness is in relation with crystallinity of glaze surface, crystal type and crystal distribution in amorphous matrix phase.