Compositional and Temperature Controls on Structural Order, Dynamics, and Properties of Multicomponent Borosilicate Glasses

非技术描述硼硅酸盐玻璃在技术上得到了广泛的应用，应用范围从耐热和耐化学腐蚀的玻璃器皿和反应容器，到玻璃纤维增强纤维，再到计算机和电视显示屏。其中许多是价值数十亿美元的美国产业的核心，如平板电视、S和电脑显示器。这些材料的原子级结构控制着它们的性能，必须量身定做，以提高它们在不同用途中的性能。该项目旨在了解玻璃成分的变化以及在制造过程中的热处理方式如何以有用的方式改变玻璃结构的一般原理，以便更容易地预测和设计性能。这些研究的结果也应该在玻璃(以及冷却时形成玻璃的液体)重要的其他科学领域引起更广泛的兴趣，包括地球科学和凝聚态物理。教育是这个项目的核心，因为大多数研究将是博士和本科生通往科学和工程职业道路的培训的一部分。技术细节将使用的最重要的实验方法是固态核磁共振(核磁共振)光谱学，它提供了关于技术眼镜中常见成分周围结构的定量细节，包括硼、铝、硅和氧。在这个项目中，P.I.和学生将合成几种成分有系统变化的玻璃系列，并测量玻璃结构的变化。他们将改变玻璃的热历史，以寻找明显重要但鲜为人知的温度影响。他们将用热力学模型分析结果，以预测关键性质。目前对改进和新型玻璃材料的大部分开发都来自反复试验；因此，发展对结构-性能关系的更基本的理解是一个重要的目标。这一目标的成功可能会带来为新应用设计玻璃成分的新思路。鉴于其他国家在基础玻璃科学方面的重大努力，以及高科技玻璃制造在美国工业中的重要性，似乎特别迫切地需要在对这些材料的更基本理解方面取得进展。

NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTIONBorosilicate glasses are widely used in technology, with applications ranging from heat- and chemical-resistant glassware and reaction vessels, to reinforcement fibers in ?fiber-glass?, to computer and television display screens. Many of these are central to multi-billion dollar U.S. industries, such as flat-panel TV?s and computer monitors. The atomic-scale structure of these materials controls their properties, which must be tailored to improve performance in their diverse uses. This project seeks to understand general principles of how variations in the glass composition, and the way that it is heat-treated during manufacturing, change the glass structure in useful ways, to allow properties to be more easily predicted and engineered. The results of these studies should have more general interest as well, in other fields of science where glasses (and the liquids that form glass on cooling) are important, including geosciences and condensed-matter physics. Education is central to this project, since most of the research will be part of the training of Ph.D. and undergraduate students on their ways to careers in science and engineering.TECHNICAL DETAILSThe most important experimental approach that will be used is solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, which provides quantitative details about the structure around many of the components common in technological glasses, including boron, aluminum, silicon, and oxygen. The P.I. and students in this program will synthesize several series of glasses with systematic variations in composition, and measure how glass structure changes. They will vary the thermal history of the glasses to look for clearly important, but poorly-known, effects of temperature. They will analyze results with thermodynamic modeling to allow prediction of critical properties. Much of the current development of improved and new types of glass materials comes from trial-and-error experimentation; it is thus an important goal to develop more fundamental understanding of structure-property relationships. Success with this goal could lead to new ways of thinking about designing glass compositions for new applications. Given major efforts in fundamental glass science in other countries, and the importance of the manufacturing of high-tech glasses in U.S. industry, it seems particularly urgent to progress in more basic understanding of these materials.