Glass and Glass-Ceramics: Crystallization Kinetics and Properties

Dear Colleagues,

Natural and synthetic glasses are present in several parts of the world. Volcanic processes, meteorite impacts, or lightning strikes can produce the former. The latter are diverse in composition and properties. In both cases, their melts must be cooled fast enough to prevent the occurrence of a detectable fraction of crystals, usually assumed to lie between 10⁻² and 10⁻⁶. Vitreous materials are essential for the development of modern society and are present in several technological areas (e.g., electronics, energy, communication, medicine, pharmaceuticals). However, many applications require the improvement of their properties (e.g., optical, mechanical, thermal, electrical, chemical).

By adjusting the parent glass composition, adding nucleating agents, and controlling heat treatments, nearly every known glass can be successfully crystallized into glass-ceramics (GCs). The GCs always contain a residual glassy phase and one or more embedded crystalline phases, which can be tailored to produce materials with excellent thermomechanical, chemical, electrical, and (or) optical properties. Under these conditions, new crystals arise (by nucleation and crystal growth phenomena), new crystalline phases precipitate, and the parent glasses’ microstructures, structure, and properties change. These crystalline phases are constituted mainly by natural and synthetic minerals, such as quartz, feldspar, rutile, sanbornite, fresnoite, gillespite, wollastonite, etc. Therefore, the study of these glasses and glass-ceramics represents a stimulating yet challenging field of research.

This Special Issue invites contributions (research papers and reviews) that deal with the characterization of minerals identified in natural and synthetic glasses using spectroscopy and structural analyses. In addition, papers on the modifications of their properties (thermomechanical, chemical, electrical, and (or) optical) caused by the precipitation of distinct crystalline and mineral phases due to the addition of nucleating agents and employing controlled heat treatments are welcome to this issue. Research related to the crystallization kinetics of these glasses will also be considered.

Prof. Dr. Aluisio A. Cabral
Guest Editor

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• minerals
• natural and synthetic glasses
• devitrification
• glass-ceramics
• properties
• crystallization kinetics