Open Access

Glass-ceramics are noted for their unusual combination of properties and manifold commercialized products for consumer and specialized markets. Evolution of novel glass and ceramic processing routes, a plethora of new compositions, and unique exotic nano- and microstructures over the past 60 years led us to review the Definition of glass-ceramics. Well-established and emerging processing methods, such as co-firing, additive manufacturing, and laser patterning are analyzed concerning the core requirements of processing glass-ceramics and the Performance of the final products. In this communication, we propose a revised, updated definition of glass-ceramics, which reads “Glass-ceramics are inorganic, non-metallic materials prepared by controlled crystallization of glasses via different processing methods. They contain at least one type of functional crystalline phase and a residual glass. The volume fraction crystallized may vary from ppm to almost 100%”.

Bulk elastic properties, hardness and fatigue of calcium aluminosilicate (CAS) glasses in the technically relevant region of the ternary with intermediate-silica fraction were determined by combining results of Vickers indentation, ultrasonic echography and Archimedian buoyancy at room temperature. Of three studied compositional series, the first series was along the meta-aluminous join, while in the two other series the molar fraction of SiO2 was kept constant. For the first series the elastic moduli and hardness show an almost linear increase with increasing SiO2 fraction. In contrast, increasing the CaO/SiO2 ratio at constant silica content results in a characteristic change when passing the meta-aluminous join. Elastic constants and hardness were lower at the percalcic than on the peraluminous side. Empirical models which relate bulk elastic moduli to internal energy, short-range inter-atomic forces and the packing density of their oxide constituents were found to be in agreement with the experimental data for meta-aluminous glasses, while deviations between the observed and predicted trends were evident for percalcic compositions. Empirical fatigue parameters such as the probability to initiate cracks after indentation reflect the bulk mechanical properties in the CAS system when conducted in inert atmosphere, but are otherwise clearly dominated by environmental effects

The structural investigation of hydrated borate glasses provides new insights on the influence of water on boron speciation using spectroscopic methods. In the present study three soda–lime–borate glasses (NCBx with x = 5, 15 and 25 corresponding to xNa2O, 10CaO, 90 - xB2O3 in mol%) were prepared with water content up to 8 wt.%. The water speciation in the glasses was derived by near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy while boron speciation was investigated by 11B MAS NMR (Magic Angle Spinning Nuclear Magnetic Resonance). For the three glasses effective molar absorption coefficients were determined experimentally for the bands at 5200 cm- 1 and 4600 cm- 1, corresponding to combination modes of H2O molecules and OH-groups, respectively. In contrast to silicate glasses, in which at most ~ 2 wt.% H2O are dissociated to OH-groups, the amount of dissociated H2O may even exceed 5 wt.% in borate glasses. The fraction of tetrahedral to total boron (N4 = BIV / BIV + BIII) is predominantly controlled by the ratio of Na2O + CaO / B2O3, but only weakly affected by the water content of the glasses. When increasing the H2O content from 0 to 8 wt.%, N4 increases from 25% to 26% for NCB5 and from 42% to 47% for NCB25 glasses.