Studies on sol-gel bonded inorganic based plates having expanded lightweight inclusions for improving energy efficiency.

[Display omitted] • Expanded lightweight plates were prepared by combining expanded glass, expanded vermiculite, and expanded perlite particles with an innovative TEOS/MTMS sol-gel binder. • Expanded glass based plate exhibited the greatest compressive strength (7.04 ± 0.44 MPa) and the highest direct tensile strength (0.486 ± 0.04 MPa). • The long term water absorbency values of expanded perlite based plate was found to be 1.76 ± 0.1 v% in the 1st day and increased slightly to 9.96 ± 0.04 v% in the 28th day. • Thermal conductivity coefficient of expanded glass based plate performed the best result which was measured as 0.125 W/m.K at 25 °C. • NIR-reflective property of expanded glass based plate was recorded as 83.2 ± 0.5 %. • All inorganic-based plates exhibited high fire resistance performance (withstand temperatures of up to ∼900 °C for 30 min). Thermal insulation materials are a great solution to minimize energy consumption for construction applications. Especially, expanded inorganic lightweights are excellent candidates in terms of their low thermal conductivity and high fire resistance properties. Sol-gel type inorganic based binders are also useful chemical substances to combine lightweight particles. In current study, inorganic-based plates were developed by using expanded glass, expanded vermiculite, and expanded perlite particles with a novel tetraethoxysilan (TEOS)/methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) sol-gel binder. The chemical, physical, mechanical and thermal properties of the plates were examined comparatively to reveal the effect of expanded lightweight particle types in the plates. According to the experimental results, the compressive strength of the developed plates was between 7.04 ± 0.44 MPa and 3.15 ± 0.17 MPa whilst the direct tensile strength ranged from 0.486 ± 0.04 MPa and 0.079 ± 0.04 MPa, respectively. Furthermore, the long term water absorbency values of the plates on the 28th day varied between 9.96 ± 0.04 v% and 49.8 ± 0.8 v%. On the other hand, while the thermal conductivity coefficient of the plates at 25 °C ranged from 0.125 to 0.254 W/m.K, infrared reflectance properties were determined between 83.2 ± 0.5 % and 64.1 1.8 %. Besides, all inorganic-based plates exhibited high fire resistance performance (withstand temperatures of up to ∼900 °C for 30 min). The results demonstrated that utilizing expanded inorganic lightweight particles with TEOS/MTMS sol-gel binder could be a promising combination to construct energy saving insulating plates to overcome poor fire resistance properties of conventional organic materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]