Glassy Materials (glassy + material)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Geology and geochemistry of shallow drill cores from the Bosumtwi impact structure, Ghana

METEORITICS & PLANETARY SCIENCE, Issue 8 2003
Daniel Boamah
The interior of the structure is largely filled by the 8 km diameter Lake Bosumtwi, and the crater rim and region in the environs of the crater is covered by tropical rainforest, making geological studies rather difficult and restricted to road cuts and streams. In early 1999, we undertook a shallow drilling program to the north of the crater rim to determine the extent of the ejecta blanket around the crater and to obtain subsurface core samples for mineralogical, petrological, and geochemical studies of ejecta of the Bosumtwi impact structure. A variety of impactite lithologies are present, consisting of impact glassrich suevite and several types of breccia: lithic breccia of single rock type, often grading into unbrecciated rock, with the rocks being shattered more or less in situ without much relative displacement (autochthonous?), and lithic polymict breccia that apparently do not contain any glassy material (allochtonous?). The suevite cores show that melt inclusions are present throughout the whole length of the cores in the form of vesicular glasses with no significant change of abundance with depth. Twenty samples from the 7 drill cores and 4 samples from recent road cuts in the structure were studied for their geochemical characteristics to accumulate a database for impact lithologies and their erosion products present at the Bosumtwi crater. Major and trace element analyses yielded compositions similar to those of the target rocks in the area (graywacke-phyllite, shale, and granite). Graywacke-phyllite and granite dikes seem to be important contributors to the compositions of the suevite and the road cut samples (fragmentary matrix), with a minor contribution of Pepiakese granite. The results also provide information about the thickness of the fallout suevite in the northern part of the Bosumtwi structure, which was determined to be ,15 m and to occupy an area of ,1.5 km2. Present suevite distribution is likely to be caused by differential erosion and does not reflect the initial areal extent of the continuous Bosumtwi ejecta deposits. Our studies allow a comparison with the extent of the suevite at the Ries, another well-preserved impact structure. [source]


On the ferroelectricity of Bi,cuprate glass doped with K ions

PHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (A) APPLICATIONS AND MATERIALS SCIENCE, Issue 1 2003
A. A. Bahgat
Abstract Recently the possibility of preparing a pure glassy phase ferroelectric material of the composition Bi1.8Pb0.3Sr2Ca2Cu3,xKxOz was explored and verified experimentally. Here we discuss these results and include a simple model to explain the origin of the observed ferroelectricity in glassy material, which is based on the residual and microstresses developed within the glass network during the quenching of the glass melt. Further, we present some additional experimental results showing the effect of the glass transition temperature on the disappearance of the observed ferroelectricity. [source]


Nanostructured Bulk Silicon as an Effective Thermoelectric Material

ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS, Issue 15 2009
Sabah K. Bux
Abstract Thermoelectric power sources have consistently demonstrated their extraordinary reliability and longevity for deep space missions and small unattended terrestrial systems. However, more efficient bulk materials and practical devices are required to improve existing technology and expand into large-scale waste heat recovery applications. Research has long focused on complex compounds that best combine the electrical properties of degenerate semiconductors with the low thermal conductivity of glassy materials. Recently it has been found that nanostructuring is an effective method to decouple electrical and thermal transport parameters. Dramatic reductions in the lattice thermal conductivity are achieved by nanostructuring bulk silicon with limited degradation in its electron mobility, leading to an unprecedented increase by a factor of 3.5 in its performance over that of the parent single-crystal material. This makes nanostructured bulk (nano-bulk) Si an effective high temperature thermoelectric material that performs at about 70% the level of state-of-the-art Si0.8Ge0.2 but without the need for expensive and rare Ge. [source]


Bulk Metallic Glasses with Functional Physical Properties

ADVANCED MATERIALS, Issue 45 2009
W. H. Wang
Abstract In this review, we report on the formation of a variety of novel, metallic, glassy materials that might well have applications as functional materials. The metallic glasses, with excellent glass-forming ability, display many fascinating properties and features such as excellent wave-absorption ability, exceptionally low glass-transition temperatures (,35,60,°C) approaching room temperature, ultralow elastic moduli comparable to that of human bone, high elasticity and high strength, superplasticity and polymer-like thermoplastic formability near room temperature, an excellent magnetocaloric effect, hard magnetism and tunable magnetic properties, heavy-fermion behavior, superhydrophobicity and superoleophobicity, and polyamorphism, all of which are of interest not only for basic research but also for technological applications. A strategy based on elastic-moduli correlations for fabrication of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) with controllable properties is presented. The work has implications in the search for novel metallic glasses with unique functional properties, for advancing our understanding of the nature and formation of glasses, and for extending the applications of the materials. [source]


Quantitative high-pressure pair distribution function analysis

JOURNAL OF SYNCHROTRON RADIATION, Issue 5 2005
John B. Parise
The collection of scattering data at high pressure and temperature is now relatively straightforward thanks to developments at high-brightness synchrotron radiation facilities. Reliable data from powders, that are suitable for structure determination and Rietveld refinement, are routinely collected up to about 30,GPa in either a large-volume high-pressure apparatus or diamond anvil cell. In those cases where the total elastic scattering is of interest, as it is in the case of nano-crystalline and glassy materials, technical developments, including the use of focused high-energy X-rays (>80,keV), are advantageous. Recently completed experiments on nano-crystalline materials at the 1-ID beamline at the Advanced Photon Source suggest that quantitative data, suitable for pair distribution function analysis, can be obtained. [source]