Alexei Vasilyevich Filippov and the State Museum of Ceramics

This article refers to previously unknown pages in the history of State Museum of Ceramics – its functioning as an industrial museum. The transformation of the Museum of Porcelain Art into the “industrial” State Museum of Ceramics took place in conditions of escalating discussion on the need for creating "industrial art” in the USSR. One of the initiators of such direction was the ceramic artist A. V. Filippov. His name earlier was not associated with the State Museum of Ceramics; however, Filippov contributed to the emergence of art-industrial laboratory in the museum structure, which not only experimented with manufacturing glazes and ceramic mixtures, but also set the production process. The novelty of this article lies in introduction into the scientific discourse of previously unknown archival documents, which allows tracing the history of origin of the art and ceramic laboratory. It was deemed that the structural division was opened in the State Museum of Ceramics. However, the laboratory was originally founded by A. V. Filippov at the Faculty of Ceramics of the Russian State Art and Technical School, then transferred to the Institute of Silicate Chemistry, and only in 1928 transferred from the Institute to the museum. The establishment of the laboratory has prompted a significant shift in the vector of development of the museum towards instusrial museum. It is also proven that Filippov developed the concept of exhibitory-manufacturing department in the museum, which included educational activity with interactive elements. These museum competencies would be in demand in the world museum practice only by the late XX century, which determines the activity of the State Museum of Ceramics during 1920s as innovative.

The Effect of the Surface Energy of Water Glass on the Fluidity of Sand

In recent years, the metal casting industry has sought to meet ever more stringent environmental standards. Inorganic binders based on silicate chemistry have many advantages with respect to environmental issues, but often suffer from reduced strength, burn-on and poor water-resistance. In particular, when sand is mixed with a water glass based inorganic binder, it adversely affects fluidity. In this study, a Powder flow test (PFT) analysis was conducted to confirm the effect of the surface tension of water glass on mixed sand. Certain additives were selected as surfactants to lower the surface tension of the water glass. The characteristics of the samples were measured using the PFT. A correlation between the surface tension of the water glass and the fluidity of the mixed sand was established. We then evaluated the effect of the inorganic binder on core strength. Using the surfactants, the fluidity of the mixed sand increased by 66%. However, strength and water resistance were reduced by approximately 45%. As a result, it was found that when 1.5% of surfactant was added, the resulting fluidity and humidity strength characteristics produced a mixed sand with good properties. Water glass with improved fluidity can produce a high quality core and mold. Finally, we used a practical application prove that an inorganic binder can replace organic binders in foundry cores.

Ecologically safe protective coatings for transport

Ways to protect vehicles and transport infrastructure from the effects of negative climate impacts, corrosion, icing, radiation, marine fouling, and biodestruction are considered based on scientific developments of Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Silicate Chemistry. New methods and approaches to develop environmentally friendly protective coatings are considered.

An Approach to Characterize the Wearability of Concrete Pavement Surface Treatments

For a concrete pavement, the permeation specifications for the surface have a crucial influence on its durability. In this accelerated laboratory research, a surface treatment that combines lithium silicate chemistry with a reactive silicon catalyst was tested to typify the product longevity under traffic and against salt scaling. River gravel and limestone aggregates were used in two different mixture designs. Abrasion testing was conducted according to ASTM standards in which mass loss was recorded at different time intervals. A modification was employed using a diluted deicer simulated by 4 wt.% CaCl2 solution during 15 cycles of freeze/thaw testing. A model was proposed to relate the abrasion efficiency against load cycles of a treated surface to represent the longevity of a concrete pavement. Based on the abrasion coefficient and the texture wavelength of the pavement, it is shown that the life cycle under abrasion of a concrete pavement can be modeled. During the experimental procedures, the untreated concrete specimens were used as the control sample. Results from the abrasion and freeze/thaw testing of treated specimens indicated a lower level of cumulative loss damage, which confirms the benefits of using such products to extend the service life of a concrete pavement surface. The results of modeling indicated an increase of 14% of the ultimate load application to failure for the treated specimens, which indicates an increase in longevity of the pavement. Moreover, when exposed to freeze/thaw cycles, a limestone concrete showed less damage compared with the river gravel concrete mixture.

Accelerated physical and chemical transformations in ceramics processing

From economic and environmental points of view, solid phase chemical reactions are very important parts of modern chemistry and technology, enabling various processes to become cleaner, safer and easier to perform. This survey presents the basic concepts of solid-state transformations in ceramics processing, including notions and phenomena described in capital books on silicate chemistry, published more than 100 years ago, to the present day. During this period, scientists and practitioners in the field of ceramics processing used concepts related to the acceleration of phase transitions and chemical reactions. Today, the differences between various accelerating agents (flux agents, mineralizers and catalysts) in terms of their composition and mechanism of action are almost completely defined and clearly delimited. However, in ceramics processing, a more general term additive is preferably used instead of the previously mentioned ones. The aim of this work is to show that all accelerating agents are equally important to researchers in the field of catalysis and material science, emphasizing that the used terminology could be interpreted from different perspectives.