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This study reports the effect of clear waste glass from bottles added on 20 to 30 wt.% and variable particle size (<500, <300, and <212 μm), into clay mixtures for the handmade brick manufacturing process. The bricks were manufactured with mixtures of clay, crushed glass, and water in different proportions, homogenized, casted in wooden molds, air-dried at room temperature for 72 h, and sintered at 1000°C for 12 h. Total shrinkage, water absorption, compressive strength, microstructure, and phase composition are discussed with respect to glass content and its particle size. The results indicate that increasing the content of glass and decreasing its particle size enhanced significantly the brick properties of water absorption and compressive strength by up to 18.5% and 6.8 MPa, for bricks with 30 wt% and particle size lower than 212 μm. It is proposed that decreasing the glass particle size its surface area increases allowing easier melting of glass by lower energy consumption, reducing porosity and enhancing brick properties.

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SUMMARY: Three novel aromatic naphthalene-lactamimide monomers were synthesised and polymerised via high temperature transesterification in melt to produce fully aromatic lactamimide-containing polyesters. Molecular modelling of the synthesised polymers showed that they should possess better solubility compared to the respective polyimides due to the more flexible polymer chain. Some of the synthesised polymers are soluble in chloroform and show medium molecular weight. Polymers were found to be rather thermostable exhibiting T 10 up to 510 8C. Aromatic polylactamimides did not show strong photoemission, probably due to Loose-Bolt quenching, however, the third order non-linear optical susceptibilities of the polymers were up to 9.1610 -11 esu, which is 5 times that of polylactamimides bearing aliphatic substituents and comparable with those of polydiacetylenes, polyanilines and polythiophenes known for their non-linear optical properties.