Physical aging and densification of glasses: kinetics and mechanisms of structural relaxation

• Grant number: 24/16255-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: February 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Nonmetallic Materials
• Principal Investigator: Edgar Dutra Zanotto
• Grantee: Ricardo Felipe Lancelotti
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/07793-6 - CEPIV - Center for Teaching, Research and Innovation in Glass, AP.CEPID

Abstract

Materials in the glassy state are not in thermodynamic equilibrium and, therefore, spontaneously relax toward the supercooled liquid state. Understanding the mechanisms of structural relaxation is of great scientific and technological importance, with the potential to develop glasses with unique properties and achieve significant advances in materials science and engineering. In this research, we aim to investigate key open questions regarding the phenomenon of structural relaxation through experiments of physical aging, involving isothermal treatments at temperatures below the glass transition, and densification, through the application of pressure. We seek to determine the exact temperature at which glass properties remain stable over laboratory timescales; investigate at the atomic scale the effect of mixed modifiers that lead to significant changes in ionic conductivity; analyze structural variations induced by the densification of glasses; and understand the relaxation kinetics of previously densified glasses. Furthermore, a key challenge of this project is to develop a glass composition with the highest known ionic conductivity, by using the mechanisms of structural relaxation and the extensive knowledge accumulated over nearly 50 years of our research group.