On structural rearrangements near the glass transition temperature in amorphous silica
Author(s)
Ojovan, Michael I
Tournier, Robert F
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The formation of clusters was analyzed in a topologically disordered network of bonds of amorphous silica (SiO2) based on the Angell model of broken bonds termed configurons. It was shown that a fractal-dimensional configuron phase was formed in the amorphous silica above the glass transition temperature Tg. The glass transition was described in terms of the concepts of configuron percolation theory (CPT) using the Kantor-Webman theorem, which states that the rigidity threshold of an elastic percolating network is identical to the percolation threshold. The account of configuron phase formation above Tg showed that (i) the glass transition was similar in nature to the second-order phase transformations within the Ehrenfest classification and that (ii) although being reversible, it occurred differently when heating through the glass-liquid transition to that when cooling down in the liquid phase via vitrification. In contrast to typical second-order transformations, such as the formation of ferromagnetic or superconducting phases when the more ordered phase is located below the transition threshold, the configuron phase was located above it.
Date Issued
2021-09-11
Date Acceptance
2021-09-08
Citation
Materials, 2021, 14 (18)
ISSN
1996-1944
Journal / Book Title
Materials
Volume
14
Issue
18
Copyright Statement
© 2021 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/)
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/)
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34576458
PII: ma14185235
Subjects
Hausdorff-Besicovitch dimension
amorphous silica
chemical bond
glass transition
percolation
structure
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Switzerland
Article Number
ARTN 5235