Effect of nanoscale phase separation on the fracture behavior of glasses: Toward tough, yet transparent glasses

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Effect of nanoscale phase separation on the fracture behavior of glasses: Toward tough, yet transparent glasses

Longwen Tang, N. M. Anoop Krishnan, Jonathan Berjikian, Jared Rivera, Morten M. Smedskjaer, John C. Mauro, Wei Zhou, and Mathieu Bauchy

Phys. Rev. Materials 2, 113602 – Published 8 November 2018

Abstract

Although oxide glasses have many unique properties, their range of applications remains limited by their brittleness. By mimicking the microstructure of composite materials, the presence of controlled nanoscale phase separation in glass could overcome this limitation. However, the nature of the toughening mechanism induced by such nanostructuring remains poorly understood. Here, based on peridynamic simulations, we investigate the effect of nanoscale phase separation on the crack propagation mechanism. We show that phase separation can significantly increase glass's toughness (with up to a 90% increase in the fracture energy for the range of conditions investigated herein). The extent of toughening is found to arise from a balance between the overall cohesion of the phase-separated glass and the propensity for crack deflection. This suggests that controlled nanoscale phase separation is a promising route toward the development of tough, yet optically transparent glasses.

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Received 7 August 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.2.113602

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Ductility Fracture Material failure Phase separation Plasticity

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Longwen Tang^1,2, N. M. Anoop Krishnan^2,3, Jonathan Berjikian², Jared Rivera², Morten M. Smedskjaer⁴, John C. Mauro⁵, Wei Zhou^1,*, and Mathieu Bauchy^2,†

¹State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
²Physics of Amorphous and Inorganic Solids Laboratory (PARISlab), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
³Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India
⁴Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark
⁵Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA