Glass Structure

• Published in: Glass pp. 55 - 84
• Main Author: Le Bourhis , Eric
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Wiley 2014; Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA
• Subjects: borate glass; Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs); chalcogenide glasses; glass structure; organic glasses; silica glass; vitroceramic fabrication
• DOI: 10.1002/9783527679461.ch05
• ISBN: 3527337059; 9783527337057

This chapter shows the prominent characteristics of glass disordered structure. The chapter explains silica and related glasses because of their practical importance and the well‐documented literature. Borosilicate glasses play an important role in glass manufacturing since they are corrosion resistant and with low thermal expansion. Organic glasses are used to produce optical lenses and to protect glass articles. Chalcogenide glasses can be described in analogy to organic glasses, the term polymerization being often employed in the glass context as well. Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) were found to have a new type of glassy structure with a high degree of dense randomly packed atomic configurations with much smaller excess volume and higher packing density than oxide glasses. Vitroceramics are fabricated introducing metallic impurities in the glass melt to induce heteronucleation as detailed in the chapter.