Self-limited growth of nanocrystals in phosphosilicate melts during cooling

S.J. Liu, S. L. Lan, H.Z. Tao, Yuanzheng Yue

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

In this Letter, we demonstrate that the spontaneous nanophase-separation can greatly enhance the heterogeneous nucleation in the investigated phosphosilicate melts. The two separated phases are found to be the phosphate-rich phase as the floppy domain and the silicate-rich phases as rigid phase. We found that sodium phosphate nanocrystals form in the phosphate-rich phase during melt cooling. The growth of these nanocrystals are self-limited, i.e., limited by the surrounding silicate-rich phase with higher viscosity, and hence lower ionic diffusion compared to the phosphate-rich phase. Our results show that the substitution of B 2O 3 or Al 2O 3 for partial Na 2O enhances the spontaneous nucleation, although the viscosity of silicate-rich matrix phase is increased by such substitution. This implies that the compositional substitution enhances nanophase separation and thereby lowers the activation energy for non-isothermal crystallization. This work indicates that nanophase separation is crucial for fabrication of transparent glass-ceramics from phosphosilicate melts.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of the European Ceramic Society
Volume39
Issue number13
Pages (from-to)3876-3882
Number of pages7
ISSN0955-2219
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2019

Keywords

  • Melt–cooling–devitrification
  • Percolation theory
  • Phosphosilicate glass
  • Self-limited crystal growth
  • Transparent glass ceramics

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