Fabrication of Cordierite Glass Ceramic with the Use of Silicone Resin and Investigating Its Mechanical Properties

Cordierite (2MgO,2Al2O3,5SiO2) is one of the compounds in the MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 triple diagram which they have properties such as low dielectric constant and loss tangent, very low thermal expansion coefficient, refractory and suitable chemical and mechanical stability. In this study, α-cordierite was synthesized using the solid state reaction method of oxide powders (aluminum oxide, magnesium oxide and silicon oxide) and MK silicone resin. To investigate the synthesized samples, X-ray diffraction test was performed and showed that α-cordierite is formed at the temperature of 1400 °C. By performing the micro hardness test, it was observed that the hardness of the synthesized α-cordierite is equal to 12.35 GPa. Three-point bending test was performed to evaluate the flexural strength and the flexural strength was 62 ± 3.6 MPa. Also, the dielectric constant of 3.18-3.22 (in the frequency range of 8-12 GHz) and the loss tangent of 0.001-0.005 were obtained for the synthesized α-cordierite.