Crystal Nucleation And Growth In Lithium Diborate Glass By Thermal Analysis

The kinetics of nucleation and crystal growth in a Li2B407 glass were investigated using differential thermal analysis (DTA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). This melt forms a glass even when it is cooled at a very slow rate (2 K/min). The temperature range of nucleation was determined by comparing the heights of the exothermic DTA crystallization peaks for samples that were annealed at different temperatures for a fixed time (10 min). Nucleation for this glass occurred in the temperature region of glass transition, where the nucleation rate had a maximum value at ~770K.