Nucleation model for the description of glass formation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a nucleation-based model for glass formation that incorporates energy barriers and analyzes the dynamics near stationary states, linking cooling rates and nucleation frequency to amorphous states.

Contribution

It presents a novel theoretical model connecting energy barriers, nucleation, and glass formation, with analysis of dynamical equations and TTT curves.

Findings

Pure amorphous solutions depend on cooling rate and nucleation frequency.

The model relates kinetic processes to the formation of glass.

Time-temperature-transformation curves are constructed for the model.

Abstract

We present in this letter a model of glass formation using energy barriers and a crystal nucleation process. We then analyze the corresponding dynamical equation in the vicinity of the stationary solutions. The occurence of a pure amorphous solution (i.e. glass) is due to the contribution of a ratio $\Lambda$ depending on the cooling rate and the crystal nucleation frequency. We also construct time-temperature-transformation (TTT) curves in order to relate the model with the kinetic treatment of glass formation.