Glass Ceramic Atomic Structure

The structure of a glassy metal on the atomic scale.

Glass ceramic atomic structure. Excessivestress therefore forms a crack that starts at a point where there is a surface flaw. The key difference between glass and ceramic is that ceramics have crystalline or semi crystalline or non crystalline atomic structure whereas the atomic structure of glass is non crystalline. The amorphous structure of glass makes it brittle. The silicon atoms occupy the openings interstitials between the oxygen atoms and share four valence electrons with the oxygen atoms through covalent bonding.

Glass ceramics are made of small grains surrounded by a glassy phase and have properties in between those of glass and ceramics. Glasses do not exhibit the ordered crystalline structure of most other ceramics but instead have a highly disordered amorphous structure. Amorphous structure means that atoms are not organized according to a well ordered repeating arrangement as in crystals. Because glass doesn t contain planesof atoms that can slip past each other there is no way to relieve stress.

Atomic structure of glass. Even though glass has a different atomic structure it is hard rigid brittle and resistant to thermal conduction chemical corrosion and electrical conduction like most ceramics. It means that it is made up of a long chain of atoms glasses show no regular arrangement of their atoms the chemical structure of silicate glass ordinary window glass is an amorphous 3d network of si o si o bonds which are interrupted in places with metal ions like al ca na. Atomic structure glasses are a unique range of ceramic materials defined principally by their atomic structure.

This gives them very different properties to other crystalline ceramics.