Grand Challenges in Glass Science

Plasticity, crack initiation and defect resistance in alkali-borosilicate glasses: From normal to anomalous behavior

“…The KBS glass was prepared by melting batches of 4 l in a Pt crucible for 8 h at 1630°C. To avoid phase separation, Al 2 O 3 was added as Al(OH) 3 to the silicarich glasses (NBS2, Duran, LBS and KBS). To ensure homogenous melts, the glasses with SiO 2 contents higher than 70 mol% were quenched in water and re-melted after drying.…”

“…They are an indispensable component in a wide variety of technical applications such as substrates in electronic devices or displays, household or laboratory ware, or cover glasses [1][2][3]. For example, they enable relatively high softening temperatures and low coefficient thermal expansion (or also matching the coefficient of thermal expansion to that of silicon), but also very specific mechanical properties [4].…”

Thermometer Effect: Origin of the Mixed Alkali Effect in Glass Relaxation

“…However, this model remains largely axiomatic and the nature of the excitations and traps lacks any clear atomistic picture or any explicit link with the MAE effect. More generally, the atomic origin of the MAE itself remains largely unknown [18][19][20][21][22].…”

Relaxation dynamics in the strong chalcogenide glass-former of Ge22Se78

“…Due to the non-equilibrium nature of glassy materials and the tendency moving towards equilibrium states or stable states to release excess energy, the structure and properties might be subjected to variation at a specific temperature, which is initiated by the structural relaxation3. Therefore, the stability of glassy materials is directly related to the structural relaxation dynamics, which is critical to understand the property changes in such materials.…”