Microstructure and improved fracture toughness of borosilicate glass reinforced by 1 vol% Ag nanoparticles

• Published in: Ceramics international Vol. 48; no. 20; pp. 30900 - 30904
• Main Authors: Liu, Lei, Shinozaki, Kenji
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 15.10.2022
• Subjects: Borosilicate glass; Crack bridging; Crack deflection; Fracture toughness; Silver nanoparticles; Crack bridging; Borosilicate glass; Crack deflection; Silver nanoparticles; Fracture toughness
• ISSN: 0272-8842; 1873-3956
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ceramint.2022.07.044

Silver (Ag) nanoparticles (1 vol%) were successfully incorporated into borosilicate glass by spark plasma sintering of powder mixtures of borosilicate glass and silver nitrate. Finer glass powder as the starting material led to the coarsening of Ag nanoparticles in the sintered sample, while starting with coarse glass powder led to a high concentration of Ag nanoparticle precipitates at the original interface. The fracture toughness was enhanced by incorporating Ag nanoparticles. The toughness values of the samples starting from coarse and fine glass powders were 1.76 (1.9-fold increase) and 1.31 MPa m1/2 (1.4-fold increase), respectively. The precipitation of Ag nanoparticles in a large number density in a narrow area of the interface results in significant crack deflection and crack bridging, and thus greater toughness improvement by starting with coarse glass powder.