Editorial

published: 22 May 2017

doi: 10.3389/fmats.2017.00014

Editorial: Nucleation and

Crystallization of Glasses
and Glass-Ceramics
Joachim Deubener 1* and Wolfram Höland 2*
1
 Institute of Non-Metallic Materials, Clausthal University of Technology, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany,
2
 Ivoclar Vivadent AG, Schaan, Liechtenstein

Keywords: glass-ceramic technology, heterogeneous and homogeneous nucleation, crystal growth, ceramming,
sintering, nucleation agents, crystal pattering, non-linear optic crystals

The Editorial on the Research Topic

Nucleation and Crystallization of Glasses and Glass-Ceramics

Glass-ceramic technology, which is based on materials built from glasses via controlled nucleation
and crystal growth, is promising to provide us with materials of high strength, high toughness,
unique electrical/electronic or magnetic properties, exceptional optical or unusual thermal or
chemical properties. Glass-ceramic technology has been used also to develop materials, which exhibit
exceptional properties of hot and cold processing such as moldability and machinability, and it aims
for better combining flexibility of these material and process characteristics in the future. The greater
diversity of microstructure-property arrangements and processing routes over glasses and ceramics
are responsible that glass-ceramics are the preferred choice of materials in many technical, consumer,
optical, medical/dental, electrical/electronic, and architectural fields. This includes increasing uses of
glass-ceramic materials for environment and energy applications in the last decades.
Edited and Reviewed by:
The positive development of glass-ceramic technology has become true in particular due to the
John C. Mauro,
Corning Inc., USA pioneering spirit, resourcefulness, and courage of researchers of the first generation. Extraordinary
and, therefore, to be distinguished is the work of the glass-ceramic inventor S. Donald Stookey
*Correspondence:
Joachim Deubener
(Beall) to whom this Research Topic is dedicated. He had realized, as early as at the mid of the last
[email protected]; century, that glass-ceramic properties are mainly influenced by the controlling of the mechanisms of
Wolfram Höland nucleation and crystal growth to achieve desired microstructures in the volume of these materials.
[email protected] The last decades saw development of the downstream thermal treatment of formed glass parts
(called “ceramming”) for a large variety of chemical systems, while nowadays, sintering of glass pow-
Specialty section: ders is available as a powerful route for glass-ceramic processing at lower fabrication temperatures
This article was submitted and for complex shapes using powder compacts or slurry deposits on various substrates prepared
to Glass Science, by dipping, brushing, or spraying techniques or the emerging printing technologies (Höland and
a section of the journal
Beall, 2012; Müller and Reinsch, 2012). For both fabrication routes, crystal growth at or close to
Frontiers in Materials
internal and external interfaces induced by heterogeneous nucleation is the key process transform-
Received: 11 April 2017 ing glass into glass-ceramic. Nucleation agents have been shown to trigger these processes in the
Accepted: 05 May 2017
volume of transparent glass-ceramics. Their coloration effects are subject of current developments
Published: 22 May 2017
(Nakane and Kawamoto). For sintered glass-ceramics, surface activation treatments by milling glass
Citation: powders promote heterogeneous nucleation but these processes can cause gas release during the
Deubener J and Höland W (2017)
subsequent sintering step. To overcome limitations of sintered glass-ceramics for energy applica-
Editorial: Nucleation and
Crystallization of Glasses and
tions, such as SOFC sealants, measures to reduce the bubble formation are now being studied inten-
Glass-Ceramics. sively (Agea-Blanco et  al.). Further, activation of both heterogeneous surface and heterogeneous
Front. Mater. 4:14. volume nucleation processes of sintered glass-ceramics is currently gaining importance for dental
doi: 10.3389/fmats.2017.00014 applications (Rampf et al.). To study the interplay of heterogeneous and homogeneous nucleation

Frontiers in Materials  |  www.frontiersin.org 1 May 2017 | Volume 4 | Article 14

Deubener and Höland Controlled Crystallization of Glasses

in glass-ceramic materials from a more fundamental point of apatite crystals. Current directions in the development of apatite
view, current academic research is focusing on the underlying glass-ceramics for orthopedics, dentistry, optoelectronics, and
stochastic nature of the crystal nucleation process (Krüger and nuclear waste management are re-evaluated in this Research
Deubener). Topic (Duminis et al.).
Ceramming is the core process in the case of consumer
products and appliances. In order to achieve near-net shape AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
fabrication, in  situ analysis of changes in the thermomechni-
cal behavior concurrent with the microstructure evolution is This contribution is an editorial. As such, the topic editors equally
increasingly gaining attention (Fu et al.). For further performance contributed to this introduction.
improvements, additional, post-ceramming heat treatments with
respect to ion-exchange and mechanical strength development ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
have found renewed interest. The recent status of ion-exchanged
glass-ceramics is reviewed in this topical issue (Beall et al.). The We would like to thank all the authors, reviewers, editors, publish-
precipitation of optically active crystals can also be widely con- ers, and members of the Technical Committee 07 (Crystallization
trolled by glass-ceramic technology. Efficient down-conversion and Glass-ceramics) of the International Commission on Glass
processes in transparent glass-ceramics are one of the emerging (ICG) who have supported this Research Topic.
fields where rare earth ions can be used to promote solar cell effi-
ciency (Gorni et al.). Furthermore, laser-induced crystallization FUNDING
is shown to be attractive alternative to usual ceramming, which
can provide novel functionalities to glass-ceramic materials The Topic Editors acknowledge the Coordinating Technical
by spatially selected patterning of non-linear optic crystals in Committee (CTC) of the International Commission on Glass
glasses. Intensive R&D is now providing us with new insides on (ICG) for supporting the “11th International Symposium on
the mechanisms that control crystal growth directions (Komatsu Crystallization in Glasses and Liquids” October 11–14, 2015 in
and Honma). Glass-ceramic is also very attractive for hosting Nagaoka, Japan.

REFERENCES Copyright © 2017 Deubener and Höland. This is an open-access article distributed
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use,
Höland, W., and Beall, G. H. (2012). Glass-Ceramic Technology. Hoboken, NJ: distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original
Wiley. author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal
Müller, R., and Reinsch, S. (2012). “Viscous phase silicate processing,” in Processing is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or
Approaches for Ceramics and Composites, eds N. Bansal and A. R. Boccaccini reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
(Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons), 75–144.

Conflict of Interest Statement: The authors declare that the research was con-
ducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be
construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Frontiers in Materials  |  www.frontiersin.org 2 May 2017 | Volume 4 | Article 14