A zirconium-free glaze system for sanitary ceramics with SiO2-CaCO3-TiO2 composite opacifier containing anatase: Effect of interface combination among SiO2, CaCO3 and TiO2

TiO2 is an ideal substitute to ZrSiO4 ceramic opacifier, yet it is limited to application because of the undesirable yellowing resulting from rutile formation. Herein, the SiO2-CaCO3-TiO2 composite opacifier (Si-Ca-Ti) was constructed. The glaze used Si-Ca-Ti presents a superior opacification performance than ZrSiO4 opacified glaze without causing yellowing, showing L*, a*, b* values of 94.81, -0.67 and 3.23. By comparison, the glaze using SiO2, CaCO3, and TiO2 mixture shows lower opacification and yellowish surface with L* and b* values of 92.99 and 5.36. It is revealed that there is a close interface bonding among SiO2, CaCO3 and TiO2 in Si-Ca-Ti, which promotes their combination reaction to generate opacification phase titanite and inhibit rutile formation when sintering, resulting in the white surface and opacification improvement of the glaze. This study proposes a green and efficient strategy to achieve white and highly opacified glaze for sanitary ceramics, exhibiting good application prospect.