A new method for preparing fused silica and high‐silica glasses through the sougel process is described. Ordinarily, fused silica is formed by fusion of silica at 1900° to 2000°C. The method described consists of preparation of a porous body by mixing colloidal silica with water, drying, redispersion, molding by casting, followed by gelation, drying, and sintering at 1450° to 1500°C. The sintering is facilitated by addition of 3 to 5 wt% B 2 O 3 . The process of dispersion‐drying‐redispersion (so‐called “double process”) results in formation of a two‐mode pore structure which permits drying of cast tubes and rods without breakage. The preparation of the porous bodies, study of pore structure, and properties of resulting glasses are described in Part I, the sintering is considered in Part II, and the mechanism of gel formation is interpreted from infrared spectroscopy studies in Part III.
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Rabinovich et al. (1983) studied this question.