Property/Morphology Relations in Alkali Silicate Glasses

The effects of glass composition and thermal history on the glass‐transformation range behavior, as indicated by thermal expansion curves, and on chemical durability, as indicated by the acid etch rate, were measured for binary lithium, sodium, and potassium silicate glasses and for the lithinm/sodium and lithiumlpotassium mixed‐alkali silicate glasses. The results were used to determine the phase‐separation boundaries and the limits of interconnectivity of each phase for all five systems. The results demonstrate the utility of such studies for the characterization of the morphology of glass‐forming systems.