This experimental study investigates top-down grinding to turn used waste glass into nano-glass powder. The study explores a new instrument locally manufactured to synthesize nano-glass powder. The high-energy ball mill was manufactured based on design, material, assembly, testing, optimization, and quality control. Two milling environments were examined: wet with water as a surfactant liquid and dry with varying grinding times. In addition, this study compared the output of nano glass created from mechanical and chemical grinding processes. Blaine's method for surface area measurement results of nanoscale powder samples produced by the wet grinding method showed a steady increase commensurate with the grinding duration, as the 12-h grinding specimen was the highest in surface area. In contrast, dry grinding samples showed anomalies in some instances due to the agglomerate phenomenon, such as 8- and 10-h grinding samples. Moreover, FE-SEM showed that the 12-h grinding specimen has the smallest particle size. But the AFM illustrated accurately with the 2D measurement that these particles have cortical shapes, which may describe the secret beyond the high surface area. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and AFM tests showed that in the case of nanoscale glass particles, regardless of their morphology status, the shape of the particle itself is the deciding factor in giving the Nano powder the highest particle surface area. The specimen milled with 4 h of dry grinding is best suited for civil engineering research applications, while other applications that need a small amount of nano glass are recommended to use chemical methods despite their dangerous processes.
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