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The glass of gehlenite composition was prepared by flame synthesis in the form of microspheres. The powder precursor was synthesised by standard solid-state reaction method using SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 and CaCO 3 . The prepared glasses were characterized from the point of view of surface morphology, phase composition and thermal properties by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), respectively. The prepared samples contained only completely re-melted spherical particles. SEM did not reveal any features indicating the presence of crystalline phases. However, traces of crystalline gehlenite were detected by XRD. The high-temperature XRD measurements (HT XRD) were carried out to identify the phase evolution during glass crystallization. In the studied temperature range, gehlenite phase was identified as the main crystalline phase. Non-isothermal DSC analysis of prepared glass microspheres was carried out from room temperature up to 1200 °C at five different heating rates: 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 °C/ min to determine the thermal properties of microspheres. In order to study the crystallization kinetics, the DSC curves were transformed into dependence of fractional extent of crystallization (α) on temperature. The Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov model was found to be suitable for description of crystallization kinetics. Frequency factor A = 5.56 × 10 29 ± 1.73 × 10 29 min −1 , apparent activation energy E app = 722 ± 3 kJ mol −1 and the Avrami coefficient m = 2 were determined. In the studied system, the linear temperature dependence of nucleation rate, diffusion controlled crystal growth interface and a 2D crystal growth were confirmed.

The crystallization of glass microspheres in the Y2O3–Al2O3-system produced from precursor powders of four different nominal compositions via flame synthesis is analyzed in detail by electron microscopy with a focus on electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). Growth models are formulated for individual microspheres crystallized during flame synthesis as well as after an additional heat treatment step. 16 different types of crystallized bodies are cataloged for future reference. They are presented without regard for their relative occurrence; some are extremely rare but illustrate the possibilities of flame synthesis in the analyzed system. All three phases in the binary Y2O3–Al2O3-phase diagram (Y3Al5O12, YAlO3 and Y4Al2O9) and α-alumina are located by EBSD. Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry results obtained from these microspheres show that their chemical composition can deviate from the nominal composition of the precursor powder. The multitude of differing microsphere types showing polygon and dendritic crystal growth as well as phase separation indicate that flame synthesis can lead to a wide variety of parameters during microsphere production, e.g. via irregular flight paths through the flame, contaminants or irregular cooling rates.