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The hydrogen tightness of high-pressure hydrogen storage is a Basic criterion for long-term storage. The H2 permeation coefficients of epoxy resin and a glass lacquer were determined to enable the geometric optimization of a glass capillary storage. It was found that the curing conditions have no significant influence on the H2 permeation coefficient of resin.
The H2 permeation coefficient of epoxy resin is only about three orders of Magnitude greater than that of borosilicate glass. This suggests that the initial pressure of 700 bar takes about 2.5 years to be halved in capillary array storage. Therefore, a high-pressure hydrogen storage tank based on glass capillaries is ideally suited for long-term storage in mobile applications.
A novel method to generalize kinetic data of viscous crack healing in glasses is proposed. The method assumes that crack healing progress is proportional to the healing time, t, and indirect proportional to viscosity, n. This way, crack length and crack width data, normalized to the initial crack length and plotted versus t/n, allow to compare crack healing progress for different cracks and healing temperatures in a master curve. Crack healing experiments conducted in this study demonstrate the applicability of this method for a commercial microscope slide glass.
A glass of the composition 37BaO·16CaO·47SiO2 wt% produced on an industrial scale is crystallized at 970 °C for times ranging from 15 min to 2 h. The crystallization at the immediate surface as well as the crystal growth into the bulk are analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) including energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) as well as X-ray diffraction in the Θ–2Θ setup (XRD). The immediate surface shows the oriented nucleation of walstromite as well as the formation of wollastonite and an unknown phase of the composition BaCaSi3O8. All three phases also grow into the bulk where walstromite ultimately dominates the kinetic selection and grows throughout the bulk due to a lack of bulk nucleation. Walstromite shows systematic orientation changes as well as twinning during growth. A critical analysis of the XRD-patterns acquired from various crystallized samples indicates that their evaluation is problematic and that phases detected by XRD in this system should be verified by another method such as EDXS.
Sand erosion of solar glass: Specific energy uptake, total transmittance, and module efficiency
(2018)
Surface roughness, R Z , normal transmittance, Τ N , total transmittance, Τ T , and photovoltaic (PV) module efficiency, η S , were measured for commercial solar glass plates and PV test modules identically sandblasted with different loads of quartz sand (200 – 400 μ m), impact inclination angles, and sand particle speed. Measured data are presented versus the specific energy uptake during sand blasting, E (J/m2). Cracks, adhering particles, and scratch ‐ like textures probably caused by plastic flow phenomena could be observed after sand blasting. Their characteristic size was much smaller than that of sand particles.
After blasting and subsequent cleaning, the glass surface was still covered with adhering glass particles. These particles, cracks, and scratch ‐ like textures could not be removed by cleaning. For sand blasting with α = 30° inclination angle and E = 30 000 J/m2, normal transmittance, total transmittance, and relative module efficiency decreased by 29%, 2% and ∽ 2%, respectively. This finding indicates that diffusive transmission of light substantially contributes to PV module efficiency and that the module efficiency decrease caused by sand erosion can be better estimated from total than by normal transmittance measurements.
Borosilicate glasses (16Na2O–10B2O3–74SiO2, NBS) with water contents up to 22 mol% H2O were prepared to study the effect of water on structural relaxation using DTA, viscometry and internal friction measurements. The results show that the glass transition temperature Tg of DTA and the isokom temperature T12, of viscometry are in excellent agreement, confirming the equivalence of enthalpy and viscous relaxation for NBS glass. Combining Tg data with water speciation data demonstrates that OH groups are mainly responsible for the decrease of Tg with increasing hydration, while molecular water plays only a minor role. Internal friction spectra at 7.125 Hz confirm the decisive influence of water on mechanical relaxation. The temperature range of α-relaxation (glass transition) strongly decreases while two β-relaxation peaks (sub-Tg) progressively appear with increasing water content. A high temperature β-relaxation peak, attributed to the presence of OH groups, shifts from 670 to 450 K as total water content increases from 0.01 to 5 wt%. A low temperature β-relaxation peak, attributed to molecular water, appears at 380 K and 330 K in glasses containing 3 and 5 wt% H2O, respectively. These findings suggest that relaxation mechanism of different hydrous species at low temperature may contribute to fatigue of stressed glasses.
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%”.
Glasses with compositions of 21Gd2O3-63MoO3-(16-x)B2O3-xTeO2 (mol%) (x= 0, 2, 4, 8) were prepared using a conventional melt quenching technique, and the crystallization behavior of ferroelastic β′-Gd2 MoO4)3 Crystals was examined to clarify the mechanism of self-powdering phenomenon and to design bulk crystallized glasses. It was found that the self-powdering phenomenon appeared significantly during the crystallization at temperatures near the crystallization peak temperature, but the phenomenon is suppressed in the crystallization at temperatures much higher than the glass transition temperature. It was also found that the substitution of TeO2 for B2O3 in the base glasses suppresses the self-powdering phenomenon and consequently bulk crystallized glasses were obtained in the glass with x=8 mol%. The densities at room temperature of the base glasses are d =4.755–4.906 g/cm3, being much higher than the value of d=4.555 g/cm3 for β′-Gd2(MoO4)3 crystal. It is proposed that the stresses in the inside of crystals induced by large density differences (i.e., large molar volume differences) between the glassy phase and crystals might be relaxed effectively in the glasses containing TeO2 with weak TeeO bonds and fragile character.
The crystallization behavior of sodium ion conductive Na2MnP2O7 glass was examined to clarify the crystallization mechanism. The formation of thermodynamically metastable phase, layered Na2MnP2O7, at the surface of the glass occurred. Heat treatment at 430 °C for 3 h lead to surface crystals of Na2MnP2O7 oriented with the (101) direction perpendicular to the sample surface. As the heat treatment temperature increased, the glass-ceramic samples deformed, and the presence numerous micro bubbles due to dissolved water was detected.
Hydrogen gas diffusivity of fourteen glasses of the Na2O-Al2O3-SiO2 system are studied along the joins quartzalbite-jadeite-nepheline (Qz-Ab-Jd-Np, fully polymerized) and albite-sodium disilicate (Ab-Ds, depolymerized).
Density measurements show that ionic porosity decreases from 54.4% (Qz) to 51.5% (Np) and from 52.4% (Ab) to 50.2% (Ds). Hydrogen diffusivity D follows similar trends but at another scale. D at 523 K decreases from 4×10−12 to 3×10−14m2 s−1 (Qz-Np) and from 4×10−13 to 3×10−15m2 s−1 (Ab-Ds). Charge compensating Na+ acting as a filling agent in fully polymerized network structures leads to up to one order of Magnitude higher diffusivities as depolymerized glass structures of the same SiO2 content where Na+ takes the role of a
modifier ion. Temperature dependence of the diffusivity indicates that both the activation energy involved with the moving H2 molecule as well as the accessible volume in the structure contribute to this compositional trend.
Due to the stochastic nature of crack nucleation by Vickers indentation, a statistical analysis of propagation rates of 185 radial cracks was performed. Crack growth was observed directly using a video camera with high Image acquisition rate. It is found that propagation rates are controlled by the environmental reactions at the crack-tip shortly after their initiation (< 1 s). Calibration of the stress intensity KI showed that the residual stress factor χ and the exponent n of the equation KI==χPc−n (with P==load and c==crack length) are broadly distributed among the 185 analyzed cracks, ranging from 10−16 to 104 and from 0.1 to 5, respectively. For the most frequent crack, the equation KI==0.052Pc−1.47 holds. The results show that correlations of indentation-induced crack length to stress intensity necessitate the use of statistical significant data that are calibrated by the environmental reactions at the crack-tip.
The effect of structural water on density, elastic constants and microhardness of water-bearing soda-lime-silica glasses of up to 21.5 mol% total water is studied. It is found that the Poisson ratio and the water content are positively correlated, while density and the elastic moduli decrease with increasing water content. Vickers hardness decreases by approximately 27% from the dry to the most hydrous glass. For water fractions <3 mol%, the dependencies are non-linear reflecting the non-linear change in the concentrations of OH and H2O molecules dissolved, whereas for water fractions >3 mol% linear dependencies are found. To distinguish the effect of structural water and environmental water, indentations were performed in toluene, nitrogen gas and air. Timedependent softening was evident for testing dry glasses in humid atmospheres as well as for tests of hydrous glasses in dry atmospheres. This indicates that the response times of dissolved water species are effectively equal in both scenarios.
To understand the impact of dissolved water on structure and properties, four boron-rich glasses of molar compositions 15-x Na2O x CaO 15 SiO2 70 B2O3 (with x=0, 7.5, 10) and 10 Na2O 15 SiO2 75 B2O3 were prepared and subsequently hydrated (up to 8 wt% H2O). Density measurements show a non-linear trend upon hydration implying large structural changes in particular at water contents<2 wt%. Near-infrared spectroscopy shows hydroxyl groups are the dominant species in all glasses upon the entire range of water content. Molecular H2O is detectable only at total water contents>2 wt%. 11B MAS NMR spectra show that the abundance of BO4 species is mainly controlled by ratio of (Na2O+CaO)/B2O3 while incorporation of water plays a minor role.
Compared to borate glasses, the efficiency of formation of BO4 tetrahedra is favored by crosslinking of the network by SiO4-units. The glass transition temperatures, determined by differential thermal analysis, decreases continuously with water content due to breakage of B-O-B bonds by hydrolysis. However, compared to Silicates and aluminosilicates, the effect of dissolved water is less pronounced which can be explained by weaker B-O-B bonds in comparison to Si-O-Si bonds.
The sintering of bioactive glasses allows for the preparation of complex structures, such as three‐dimensional porous scaffolds. Such 3D constructs are particularly interesting for clinical applications of bioactive glasses in bone regeneration, as the scaffolds can act as a guide for in‐growing bone cells, allowing for good Integration with existing and newly formed tissue while the scaffold slowly degrades. Owing to the pronounced tendency of many bioactive glasses to crystallize upon heat treatment, 3D scaffolds have not been much exploited commercially. Here, we investigate the influence of crystallization on the sintering behavior of several bioactive glasses. In a series of mixed‐alkali glasses an increased CaO/alkali metal oxide Ratio improved sintering compared to Bioglass 45S5, where dense sintering was inhibited.
Addition of small amounts of calcium fluoride helped to keep melting and sintering temperatures low. Unlike glass 13‐93, these new glasses crystallized during sintering but this did not prevent densification. Variation in bioactive glass particle size allowed for fine‐tuning the microporosity resulting from the sintering process.
Stable crack growth was measured for nominal dry and water-bearing (6 wt%) soda-lime silicate glasses in double cantilever beam geometry and combined with DMA studies on the effects of dissolved water on internal friction and glass transition, respectively. In vacuum, a decreased slope of logarithmic crack growth velocity versus stress intensity factor is evident for the hydrous glass in line with an increase of b-relaxation intensity indicating more energy Dissipation during fracture. Further, inert crack growth in hydrous glass is found to be divided into sections of different slope, which indicates different water related crack propagation mechanism. In ambient air, a largely extended region II is observed for the hydrous glass, which indicates that crack growth is more sensitive to ambient water.
To explore the impact of ambient and structural water on static fatigue, the initiation and growth of 3279 Vickers induced median radial cracks were automatically recorded and analyzed. We find that humidity is more efficient in initiating cracks and promoting their growth than water, which is dissolved in the glass structure. In particular for slow crack growth (< 3x10-6 m s-1), tests in dry nitrogen showed a considerable decrease in the crack growth exponent with increasing water content of the glasses. On the other hand, if tests were performed in humid air, the crack growth exponent was independent of the water content of the hydrous glasses, while stress intensity decreased slightly. These observations indicate that water promotes the processes at the crack-tip regardless of its origin. However, ambient water is more efficient.
To understand the influence of water and alkalis on aluminosilicate glasses, three polymerized glasses with varying ratios of Na/K were synthesized [(22. 5-x)Na2O-xK2O-22.5 Al2O3-55 SiO2 with x = 0, 7.5, and 11.25]. Subsequently, these glasses were hydrated (up to 8 wt% H2O) in an internally heated gas pressure vessel. The density of hydrous glasses linearly decreased with water content above 1 wt%, consistent with the partial molar volume of H2O of 12 cm3/mol. Near-infrared spectroscopy revealed that hydroxyl groups are the dominant species at water content of <4 wt%, and molecular water becomes dominating at water content of >5 wt%. The fraction of OH is particularly high in the pure Na-bearing glass compared to the mixed alkali glasses. 27Al magic angle spinning-NMR spectroscopy shows that aluminum is exclusively fourfold coordinated with some variations in the local geometry. It appears that the local structure around Al becomes more ordered with increasing K/Na ratio. The incorporation of H2O reinforces this effect. The differential thermal analysis of hydrous glasses shows a significant mass loss in the range of glass transition already during the first upscan, implying the high mobility of water in the glasses. This observation can be explained by the open structure of the aluminosilicate network and by the low dissociation enthalpy of H2O in the glasses (≈ 8 kJ/mol). The effect of the dissolved H2O on the glass transition temperature is less pronounced than for other aluminosilicate glasses, probably because of the large fraction of Al in the glasses.
Oriented surface crystallization on polished diopside glass surfaces has been studied with scanning electron microscopy, electron backscatter diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and laser scanning microscopy.
An orientation preference of [001] parallel to the glass surface was detected for separately growing diopside crystals even as small as 700 nm in size. This finding shows that crystal orientation occurs in the outermost surface layer without crystal-crystal interaction and indicates that the crystal orientation is a result of oriented nucleation. Depending on surface preparation, monomodal crystal orientation distributions with [100] perpendicular to the surface or bimodal distributions with [100] and [010] perpendicular to the glass Surface were detected. It was also shown that the degree of crystal orientation increases with decreasing Surface roughness. The observed orientation of diopside crystals could be explained in terms of the interfacial energies of different crystal faces.
Sample preparation for analytical scanning electron microscopy using initial notch sectioning
(2021)
A novel method for broad ion beam based sample sectioning using the concept of initial notches is presented. An adapted sample geometry is utilized in order to create terraces with a well-define d step in erosion depth from the surface. The method consists of milling a notch into the surface, followed by glancing-angle ion beam erosion, which leads to preferential erosion at the notch due to increased local surface elevation. The process of terrace formation can be utilized in sample preparation for analytical scanning electron microscopy in order to get efficient access to the depth-dependent microstructure of a material. It is demonstrated that the method can be applied to both conducting and non-conducting specimens. Furthermore, experimental parameters influencing the preparation success are determined. Finally, as a proof-of-concept, an electron backscatter diffraction study on a surface crystallized diopside glass ceramic is performed, where the method is used to analyze orientation dependent crystal growth phenomena occurring during growth of surface crystals into the bulk.
Barium silicate glass powders 4 h milled in CO2 and Ar and sintered in air are studied with microscopy, total carbon analysis, differential thermal Analysis (DTA), vacuum hot extraction mass spectroscopy (VHE-MS), Fourier-transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS). Intensive foaming of powder compacts is evident, and VHE studies prove that foaming is predominantly caused by carbonaceous species for both milling gases. DTA Shows that the decomposition of BaCO3 particles mix-milled with glass powders occurs at similar temperatures as foaming of compacts. However, no carbonate at the glass surface could be detected by FTIR spectroscopy, XPS, and TOF-SIMS after heating to the temperature of sintering. Instead, CO2 molecules unable to rotate identified by FTIR spectroscopy after milling, probably trapped by mechanical dissolution into the glass bulk. Such a mechanism or microencapsulation in cracks and particle aggregates can explain the contribution of Ar to foaming after intense milling in Ar atmosphere. The amount of CO2 molecules and Ar, however, cannot fully explain the extent of foaming. Carbonates mechanically dissolved beneath the surface or encapsulated in cracks and micropores of particle aggregates are therefore probably the major foaming source.
Crack growth velocity in alkali silicate glasses was measured in vacuum across 10 orders of magnitude with double cantilever beam technique. Measured and literature crack growth data were compared with calculated intrinsic fracture toughness data obtained from Young´s moduli and the theoretical fracture surface energy estimated from chemical bond energies. Data analysis reveals significant deviations from this intrinsic brittle fracture behavior. These deviations do not follow simple compositional trends. Two opposing processes may explain this finding: a decrease in the apparent fracture surface energy due to stress-induced chemical changes at the crack tip and its increase due to energy dissipation during fracture.
A double cantilever beam technique in air equipped with ultrasound modulation was used to measure the crack velocity v in borate and silicate glasses. In all glasses v and the stress intensity KI followed the empirical correlation v ~ KIn. Indicated by its smallest KI at v = 1 μm s − 1, KI* = 0.27 MPa m0.5, the silicoborate glass containing 70 mol% B2O3 was found most susceptible to stress-corrosion enhanced crack growth. Contrarily, the sodium calcium magnesium silicate glass appeared least susceptible with KI* = 0.57 MPa m0.5. No clear correlation is evident between KI*, reflecting the stress-corrosion susceptibility, and the hydrolytic resistance for all glasses under study, but values of n obtained from the present study and taken from previous literature for 35 glasses tend to decrease with increasing network modifier ion fraction. Energy dissipation during stress-corrosion enhanced crack propagation is assumed to cause this trend.
Thermally stimulated interactions between silver and glass, that is, silver dissolution as Ag+ and precipitation as Ag0 were studied in two glass series of molar target composition xAg2O–(19 − x)Na2O–28ZnO–53B2O3 with x = 0, 0.1, 0.5, 5 and (19Na2O–28ZnO–53B2O3)+yAg2O with y = 0.01, 0.05. These act as model for low-melting borate glasses being part of metallization pastes. The occurrence of metallic silver precipitates in melt-quenched glass ingots demonstrated that silver dissolved only in traces (< 0.01 mol%) in the glasses. The dissolved silver was detected by means of Raman spectroscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Increasing x in the batch could not lead to a significant increase of the silver ion fraction in the glass as possible in binary silver borate glasses. In situ observation of heated AgNO3 mixed with the base glass frit in a hot stage microscope showed that Ag0 precipitation occurs already at the solid state. At higher temperatures, small droplets of liquid silver were found to move freely within the melt, whereas coalescence caused a stepwise increase of their size.
These results contribute to the understanding of formation of silver precipitates in metallization pastes described in the literature.
Sintering, crystallization, and foaming of 44.8SiO2–2.5P2O3–36.5CaO–6.6Na2O–6.6K2O–3.0CaF2 (F3) and 54.6SiO2–1.7P2O3–22.1CaO–6.0Na2O–7.9K2O–7.7MgO (13–93) bioactive glass powders milled in isopropanol and CO2 were studied via heating microscopy, differential thermal analysis, vacuum hot extraction (VHE), Infrared spectroscopy, and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry. Full densification was reached in any case and followed by significant foaming.
VHE studies show that foaming is driven by carbon gases and carbonates were detected by Infrared spectroscopy to provide the major foaming source. Carbonates could be detected even after heating to 750◦C, which hints on a thermally very stable species or mechanical trapping. Otherwise, dark gray compact colors for milling in isopropanol indicate the presence of residual carbon as well. Its significant contribution to foaming, however, could not be proved and might be
limited by the diffusivity of oxygen needed for carbon oxidation to carbon gas.
Silicate glass fracture surface energy calculated from crystal structure and bond-energy data
(2023)
We present a novel method to predict the fracture surface energy, γ, of isochemically crystallizing silicate glasses using readily available crystallographic structure data of their crystalline counterpart and tabled diatomic chemical bond energies, D0. The method assumes that γ equals the fracture surface energy of the most likely cleavage plane of the crystal. Calculated values were in excellent agreement with those calculated from glass density, network connectivity and D0 data in earlier work. This finding demonstrates a remarkable equivalence between crystal cleavage planes and glass fracture surfaces.
Controlled oriented crystallization of glass surfaces is desired for high precision applications, since the uppermost crystal layer significantly influences the properties of the material. In contrast to previous studies, the data presented here deal with separated crystals growing at defect-free surfaces in four atmospheres with different degrees of humidity (ambient/dry air, argon and vacuum). A glass with the composition 2 BaO–TiO2–2.75 SiO2 was heat-treated at 825 °C until fresnoite (Ba2TiSi2O8) grew to a significant size. The crystal growth rate is found to increase with increasing humidity. The morphology of the crystals changes from highly distorted dendrites in the driest atmosphere (vacuum) to circular/spear-head-shaped crystals in the wettest atmosphere (ambient air), which we attribute to a decrease in viscosity of the glass surface due to water uptake. The least distorted crystals appear in the form of depressions of up to 6 µm. This has an influence on the observed crystal orientation, as measured by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The pulled-in crystals change the orientation during growth relative to the flat glass surface due to an enrichment in SiO2 at the crystal fronts. This confirms that the orientation of crystals is not fixed following nucleation.
In this review article, the impact of dissolved water on the viscous properties of soda lime silicate melts is addressed against the background of the upcoming switch from natural gas to hydrogen combustion. This change will lead to an increase in the total water content of the glasses by up to 0.4 mol%. In order to better define possible influences of water speciation, water-rich glasses were synthesised under increasing pressure up to the kbar range. It is shown that a distinction must be made between the influence of dissolved OH-groups and H2Omolecules in order to accurately reflect the dependence of isokom temperatures on water content. In addition, an increase of one order of magnitude in the tolerance to higher deformation rates was observed for the range of expected increased water contents during isothermal deformation processes, which is based on the timetemperature superposition principle, i.e. congruent flow curves were determined under isokomal conditions.
AbstractViscous healing of cracks induced by the Vickers indentation in a soda lime magnesium silicate, a soda borosilicate, and a soda aluminosilicate glass (NAS) was studied by laser scanning microscopy. Plots of the crack length, width, and depth normalized to the initial crack length versus time over viscosity merge into single master curves of each of these quantities for each glass. Despite glass properties do not differ strikingly from each other, however, these master curves strongly differ among the glasses. This finding was attributed to a different interplay of various crack healing phenomena. Lateral cracks were found to be responsible for the bulging of the sample surface around the Vickers imprint, which in turn promotes radial crack widening as the main cause of healing delay. The most rapid healing of lateral cracks was observed in NAS in which bulging and crack widening were least pronounced.
This study investigates the sintering and crystallization behavior and kinetic of the bioactive glass (BG) 13–93 with nominal composition (in mol%): 54.6 SiO2 - 1.7 P2O3 - 22.1 CaO - 6.0 Na2O - 7.9 K2O - 7.7 MgO. Sintering and crystallization were investigated non-isothermally for various particle size fractions smaller than 315 μm as well as for bulk samples. Densification was not hindered by the presence of crystalline phases across all particle size fractions. Afterwards, wollastonite was found as the dominant crystal phase at higher temperature which resorb primary surface precipitation-like quartz crystallites. The growth direction shifts into volume when the sample surface is nearly covered. The crystal growth rate of wollastonite was calculated from the crystalline surface layer thickness measured during heating. The findings of this study are relevant for the high temperature processing of BG 13–93.
Viscous crack healing in soda–lime–magnesium–silicate–ZrO<sub>2</sub> glass matrix composites
(2024)
AbstractThe present study investigates the influence of the crystal volume content on viscous crack healing in glass ceramic glass sealants. To ensure constant microstructure during healing, soda–lime–magnesium silicate glass matrix composites with varied volume fractions of ZrO2 filler particles were used. Crack healing was studied on radial cracks induced by Vickers indentation, which were stepwise annealed to monitor the healing progress by confocal laser scanning microscopy. Confirming previous studies, healing of radial cracks in pure glass was found delayed by global flow phenomena like crack widening and crack edge and tip rounding to minimize the sample surface. With increasing ZrO2 filler content, these global flow phenomena were progressively inhibited whereas local flow phenomena like sharp crack tip healing could still occur. As a result, crack healing was even accelerated by filler particles up to a maximum filler content of 17 vol% whereas crack healing was fully suppressed only at 33 vol% filler content.