Special Issue "Glass Science at a Turning Point"

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Smart Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Robert F. Tournier
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. University Grenoble Alpes, LNCMI, 38042 Grenoble cedex 09, France;
2. CNRS, Institut Neel, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 09, France
Interests: amorphous materials; glasses; vitrification; homogeneous nucleation; spin glasses; superconducting materials; melt memory; unmelted crystals; overheating
Prof. Dr. Michael I. Ojovan
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Materials, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK
2. Radiochemistry Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia
Interests: amorphous materials; vitrification; glasses; viscosity; nuclear materials; immobilisation; radiation effects
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Freezing transitions in amorphous materials are well known, while more and more thermodynamic transitions are observed in many investigations. Why? Polyamorphism exists depending on the thermal history, and on the heating and cooling rates. Glacial phases with highest Tg are formed at various cooling rates or by isothermal annealing. Ultrastable glass phases are obtained by vapor deposition below Tg. Are these glass phases formed below or above Tg, linked by some common thermodynamic and structural parameters? The first-order transitions simulated in liquid elements look like glacial phase transitions at high heating rates. Is the first-order transition to 4He glass-phase under pressure, a unique example? A change at glass transition leads to a new liquid phase. How to rejuvenate a melt which is characterized by a new Tg? This melt memory could exist up to a temperature higher than Tm. Meantime, liquid–liquid transitions are observed above Tm. Are they related to medium-range order, to short-range order, to some structural memory and to a hidden undercooled phase which could be overheated? Are prefrozen layers in polymers, due to this memory or only the consequence of 2D confinement near substrates? Are homogeneous nucleation phenomena able to describe these new transitions?

Is it possible for superclusters depending on thermal history and acting as bricks of glass formation in melts, to induce glass transitions at various percolation thresholds? What are the topological characteristics of liquid and glassy phases and how do they evolve during transitions observed?

These and some other related questions may serve as starting points for preparing submissions to this Special Issue of Materials by MDPI.

Dr. Robert F. Tournier
Prof. Dr. Michael I. Ojovan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • glass transition
  • stable glasses
  • glacial phases
  • increasing Tg
  • melt Melt rejuvenation
  • liquid mean-range and short-range orders
  • first-order transitions in melts
  • prefrozen layers
  • melt-memory
  • relaxation from quenched melts toward Tg
  • MD simulations
  • nucleation phenomena
  • topology

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Building and Breaking Bonds by Homogenous Nucleation in Glass-Forming Melts Leading to Transitions in Three Liquid States
Materials 2021, 14(9), 2287; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14092287 - 28 Apr 2021
Viewed by 622
Abstract
The thermal history of melts leads to three liquid states above the melting temperatures Tm containing clusters—bound colloids with two opposite values of enthalpy +Δεlg × ΔHm and −Δεlg × ΔHm and zero. All colloid bonds disconnect at [...] Read more.
The thermal history of melts leads to three liquid states above the melting temperatures Tm containing clusters—bound colloids with two opposite values of enthalpy +Δεlg × ΔHm and −Δεlg × ΔHm and zero. All colloid bonds disconnect at Tn+ > Tm and give rise in congruent materials, through a first-order transition at TLL = Tn+, forming a homogeneous liquid, containing tiny superatoms, built by short-range order. In non-congruent materials, (Tn+) and (TLL) are separated, Tn+ being the temperature of a second order and TLL the temperature of a first-order phase transition. (Tn+) and (TLL) are predicted from the knowledge of solidus and liquidus temperatures using non-classical homogenous nucleation. The first-order transition at TLL gives rise by cooling to a new liquid state containing colloids. Each colloid is a superatom, melted by homogeneous disintegration of nuclei instead of surface melting, and with a Gibbs free energy equal to that of a liquid droplet containing the same magic atom number. Internal and external bond number of colloids increases at Tn+ or from Tn+ to Tg. These liquid enthalpies reveal the natural presence of colloid–colloid bonding and antibonding in glass-forming melts. The Mpemba effect and its inverse exist in all melts and is due to the presence of these three liquid states. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Glass Science at a Turning Point)
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