Oxyfluoride glasses obtained through incorporation of CaF2 into photovoltaic cover glass melts

Abstract The glass industry has limited options to mitigate its environmental footprint, and the demand for cover glass to produce photovoltaic panels continues to increase. Currently, the majority of this special type of glass is not being recycled; therefore, this work proposes to reuse it as raw material to obtain oxyfluoride glasses. The incorporation of and the increasing content resulted in a melting temperature of about 1200, significantly lower than in soda‐lime glasses, contributing to the environmental benefits of reusing end‐of‐life cover glass. The obtained samples show high transparency and thermal stability, allowing the cover glass to make up to 80% of its weight. XRF analysis was employed to determine the elemental composition of the samples, while XRD and Raman indicated that by adding the glass network was depolymerized. In situ XRD as a function of temperature showed the formation of a few crystalline phases in these oxyfluoride samples, evidencing their potential to be explored as a matrix to obtain different glass‐ceramics. The combination of the glass properties indicates that this method and the resulting material can contribute to reducing the environmental impact of the glass industry. Furthermore, new glass or glass‐ceramic materials can be obtained at a reduced temperature compared to soda‐lime glass, while cover glass, being the primary raw material, could reduce the need to extract minerals from nature.