Produção e caracterização de microesferas vítreas de diferentes cores produzidas a partir de vidros reciclados para a sinalização viária

Abstract

Road signage is an essential instrument on highways, as it allows drivers a better view of the road, even in adverse weather and lighting conditions. In order to increase the road visibility, the demarcation must be retrreflective. Retroreflectivity occurs when microspheres(microbeads) are placed in the paint and exposedto vehicle lighting. Among the diferente types of microspheres, type IB, according to the NBR 16184:2021 standard, mostly have a diameter between 63 and 2012µm, and are mixed with the paint before application. According to this same standard, microspheres must be colorless for use in road signs. In this sense, this work aims to produce and characterize glass microspheres of diferente colors from recycled glass, aiming to evaluate the influence of glass color on retrorectivity measurements. More specifically, microspheres were produced using the horizontal flame method considering recycled bottle glass in green, amber and colorless colors. To verify the quality of the microspheres produced, they were compared with comercial microspheres of the same type, considering mainly the morphology, particle size distribution and retroreflectivity measurements. The results show that the retroreflectivity measurements are similar for the colors evaluated in this work, which allows us to conclude that Type IB microspheres could be manufactured and sold in all colors, which would help, among other things, to increase the recycling of colored bottles in Brazil.