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Entropic shrinkage of an oxide glass

Nature Materials volume 14, pages 312–317 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Entropic elasticity, a property typical of rubbers and well known in organic polymers with appropriate network structures, is not known to occur in oxide glasses1,2. Here, we report the occurrence of entropic elasticity in phosphate-glass fibres with highly anisotropic structures, drawn by mechanical elongation from supercooled liquids. We observed a large lengthwise shrinkage of ~35% for phosphate glasses with an enhanced one-dimensional structure, as well as a distinct endotherm on reheating them up to temperatures between that of the glass transition temperature and the softening temperature. Our results strongly suggest the possibility of designing oxide glasses with a rubbery nature at high temperatures.

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Figure 1: Model structure of an oxide glass with a preferentially oriented one-dimensional structure.
Figure 2: Characteristics of alkali metaphosphate glass structure.
Figure 3: Shrinkage behaviour of anisotropic LiNaKCsPO3 glass.
Figure 4: Shrinkage of alkali metaphosphate glasses.
Figure 5: Differential scanning calorimetry curves of anisotropic and isotropic LiNaKCsPO3 glasses.

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Acknowledgements

A part of the present research was supported by the fund from the MEXT Element Strategy Initiative to form core research centres. We would like to thank S. Kohara and H. Tajiri (Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute, JASRI), Y. Benino (Okayama University), and N. Shimizu and H. Takagi (High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, KEK) for insightful discussions. High-energy X-ray diffraction experiments were performed at the BL04B2 beamline of SPring-8 with the approval of the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (Proposal No. 2014A1096).

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  1. Seiji Inaba & Setsuro Ito

    Present address: Present address: Research Center, Asahi Glass Co. Ltd., 1150 Hazawa-cho, Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama 221-8755, Japan.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Materials and Structures Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku Yokohama 226-8503, Japan,

    Seiji Inaba, Hideo Hosono & Setsuro Ito

  2. Frontier Research Center, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku Yokohama 226-8503, Japan,

    Hideo Hosono

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  1. Seiji Inaba
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S.Inaba and S.Ito designed and ran the experiments and analysed the data. All authors discussed the results, commented on the study and co-wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Seiji Inaba.

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Inaba, S., Hosono, H. & Ito, S. Entropic shrinkage of an oxide glass. Nature Mater 14, 312–317 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4151

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