Properties of oxide glasses

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• University of North Texas - College of Engineering - Department of Materials Science and Engineering - Non-Crystalline Materials
• Chemistry LibreTexts - Crystal Structure

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• University of North Texas - College of Engineering - Department of Materials Science and Engineering - Non-Crystalline Materials
• Chemistry LibreTexts - Crystal Structure

Also known as: amorphous material, amorphous substance, noncrystalline material, noncrystalline solid

Professor Emeritus of Physics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg. Author of The Physics of Amorphous Solids.

Emeritus Professor of Glass Technology, University of Sheffield, England. Former editor, Glass Technology and Physics and Chemistry of Glasses.

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.

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The wide range of the properties of glasses depends on their composition, and special effects result from the presence of various modifying agents in certain basic glass-forming materials (see above Atomic-scale structure).

One of the most important glass formers is silica (SiO₂). Pure crystalline silica melts at 1,710 °C. In pure form, silica glass exhibits such properties as low thermal expansion, high softening temperatures, and excellent chemical and electrical resistance. In pure form it is relatively transparent over a wide range of wavelengths to visible and ultraviolet light and to ultrasonic waves.

The high viscosity (see below) and melting temperature of silica glass are affected by the presence or absence of other materials. For example, if certain materials called fluxes are added, the most important being soda (Na₂O), both viscosity and melting temperature can be reduced. If too much soda is added, the resulting glass is readily attacked by water, but, if there are suitable amounts of stabilizing oxides, such as lime (CaO) and magnesia (MgO), the glass becomes more durable. Most commercial glass has a soda-lime-silica composition and is produced in vast quantities for plate and sheet glass, containers, and lightbulbs.

In soda-lime-silica glasses, if lime is replaced by lead oxide (PbO) and if potash (K₂O) is used as a partial replacement for soda, lead-alkali-silicate glasses result that have lower softening points than lime glasses. The refractive indices, dispersive powers, and electrical resistance of these glasses are generally much greater than those of soda-lime-silica glasses.

Boric oxide (B₂O₃), itself a glass former, acts as a flux (i.e., lowers the working temperature) when present in silica and forms borosilicate glass, and the substitution of small percentages of alkali and alumina increases the chemical stability. It also exhibits low thermal expansion, high dielectric strength, and high softening temperature.

Aluminosilicate glasses find applications similar to those of borosilicates, but the former can stand higher operating temperatures; glasses with relatively high alumina contents and no boric oxide are exceptionally resistant to alkalies.

The above glasses all have silica as the glass former. With other glass formers, glasses have special properties. For example, if boric oxide is present, X-rays are transmitted and rare-earth glasses will exhibit low dispersion and a high refractive index. Phosphate glasses (used as optical glasses) based on phosphorus pentoxide (P₂O₅) are highly resistant to hydrofluoric acid and act as efficient heat absorbers when iron oxide is added. The table of some typical commercial oxide glasses of the types described gives their compositions and physical properties.

Properties and applications of amorphous solids

The following sections discuss technological applications of amorphous solids in connection with the properties that make those applications possible. It is important to understand that, although differences do exist between the properties of amorphous and crystalline solids, it is nevertheless broadly true that amorphous solids exhibit essentially the full range of properties and phenomena exhibited by crystalline solids. There are amorphous-solid metals, semiconductors, and insulators; there are transparent glasses and opaque glasses; and there are superconducting amorphous solids and ferromagnetic amorphous solids.

Some of the general differences between the properties of crystals and glasses, in addition to the fundamental one of the glass transition (as discussed above in connection with Figure 3 and also below with regard to its value in technological settings), are noted here. The atomic-scale disorder present in a metallic glass causes its electrical conductivity to be lower than the conductivity of the corresponding crystalline metal, because the structural disorder impedes the motion of the mobile electrons that make up the electrical current. (This lower electrical conductivity for the amorphous metal can be an advantage in some situations, as discussed below in the section Magnetic glasses.) For a similar reason, the thermal conductivity of an insulating glass is lower than that of the corresponding crystalline insulator; glasses thus make good thermal insulators. Crystals and glasses also differ systematically in their optical spectra, which are the curves that describe the wavelength dependence of the degree to which the solid absorbs infrared, visible, or ultraviolet light. Although the overall spectra are often similar, crystal spectra typically exhibit sharp peaks and other features that specifically arise as a consequence of the long-range order of the crystal’s atomic-scale structure. These sharp features are absent in the optical spectra of amorphous solids.

The continuous liquid-to-solid transition near T_g, the glass transition, has a profound significance in connection with classical applications of glasses. While crystallization abruptly transforms a mobile, low- viscosity liquid to a crystalline solid at T_f, near T_g the liquid viscosity increases continuously through a large range in the transformation to an amorphous solid. Viscosity, expressed in units of poise, is used in the table of characteristics of oxide glasses to specify characteristic working temperatures in the processing of the liquid precursors of various oxide glasses. A poise is the centimetre-gram-second (cgs) unit of viscosity. It expresses the force needed to maintain a unit velocity difference between parallel plates separated by one centimetre of fluid: one poise equals one dyne-second per square centimetre. Molten glass may have a viscosity of 10 13 poise (similar to honey on a cold day), and it quickly gets stiffer when cooled since the viscosity steeply increases with decreasing temperature. The ability to “tune” the viscosity of the melt (by changing temperature) allows glass to be conveniently processed and worked into desired shapes; glassblowing is a classic example of the usefulness of this widely exploited property.

The table below lists some important technological uses of amorphous solids. In addition to the application, the general type of amorphous solid used, and the material properties that make the application possible, the table also includes information about the chemical compositions of typical materials employed in these techniques. While the first entry—namely, window glass—represents the present status of a centuries-old technology, the other entries correspond to technologies that have blossomed during the second half of the 20th century. A significant theme of the table is the role of amorphous solids in applications calling for large-area sheets or films. Amorphous solids often have great advantages over crystalline solids in such applications, since their use avoids the functional problems associated with polycrystallinity or the expense of preparing large single crystals. Thus, while it would be prohibitively expensive to fabricate large windows out of crystalline SiO₂ (quartz), it is practical to do so using SiO₂-based silicate glasses.