New glass formula gets harder and clearer by swapping oxygen for nitrogen
Researchers found a way to make transparent glasses significantly stronger and stiffer by replacing some oxygen with nitrogen. The discovery could reshape markets for optical coatings, protective windows, and precision lenses—industries now limited by material brittleness and light-scattering properties.
Originaltitel: Composition–structure–property relationships of transparent Ca–Al–Si–O–N oxynitride glasses: The roles of nitrogen and aluminum
<p>We explore the formation and composition–structure–property correlations of transparent Ca–Al–Si–O–N glasses, which were prepared by a standard melt-quenching technique using AlN as the nitrogen source and incorporating up to 8 at.% of N. Their measured physical properties of density, molar volume, compactness, refractive index, and hardness—along with the Young, shear, and bulk elastic moduli—depended roughly linearly on the N content. These effects are attributed primarily to the improved glass-network cross-linking from N compared to O, rather than the formation of higher-coordination AlO5 and AlO6 groups, where 27Al magic-angle-spinning nuclear magnetic resonance experimentation revealed that aluminum is predominately present in tetrahedral coordination as AlO4 units. Yet, several physical properties, such as the refractive index along with the bulk, shear, and Young's elastic moduli, increase concomitantly with the Al content of the glass. We discuss the incompletely understood mechanical–property boosting role of Al as observed both herein and in previous reports on oxynitride glasses, moreover suggesting glass-composition domains that are likely to offer optimal mechanical properties. </p>