The Formation of Ultra-Stable Glasses via Precipitation: a Modelling Study

TL;DR

This study models how precipitating a glass-forming solute from solution can create ultra-stable glasses with lower energy states, surpassing traditional annealing methods, and highlights the role of residual solvent in stability.

Contribution

It introduces a lattice model to simulate glass precipitation, revealing a novel pathway to produce ultra-stable glasses dominated by residual solvent effects.

Findings

Precipitation yields more stable glasses than long-term annealing.

Residual solvent significantly influences the energy state of the precipitated glass.

Model demonstrates the potential for controlled formation of ultra-stable glasses.

Abstract

The precipitation of a glass forming solute from solution is modelled using a lattice model previously introduced to study dissolution kinetics of amorphous materials. The model includes the enhancement of kinetics at the surface of a glass in contact with a plasticizing solvent. We demonstrate that precipitation can produce a glass substantially more stable than that produced by very long time annealing of the bulk glass former. The energy of these ultra-stable amorphous precipitates is found to be dominated by residual solvent rather than high energy glass configurations.