From glass to crystal

From glass to crystal

Nucleation, growth and phase separation : from research to applications

Glass-ceramics are now commonplace in our daily lives, despite having only been discovered for less than a century. Much still remains to be investigated and understood about these materials, both in their applications as well as in the underlying scientific concepts. This book aims to contribute to this objective, providing a complete overview on these materials. It presents an update on the recent developments concerning the mechanisms of nucleation, crystal growth and phase separation, bringing together theoretical aspects and characterization methods. It also covers current and future applications of a large variety of glass-ceramics.

The book comprises three main parts. The first proposes an assessment of the various theories on nucleation, growth and phase separation in glassy systems. The second describes microscopic and spectroscopic analytical tools and focuses on recent advances applied to the characterization of glass-ceramics. The last part presents different families of glass-ceramics (oxides, oxyfluorides, chalcogenides) and their applications in many areas (optics, biomedical, domestic, artistic, storage of hazardous wastes...).

This reference book is destined to students (Master, PhD levels...), lecturers, researchers, engineers, at university or in industry, or just those of us who are curious and keen to discover the exciting world of transformation of glass into these « hybrid » glass-ceramic materials, arising through this apparently simple glass to crystal transformation...