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Although the interactions among glass formers and modifiers, for example, connectivity and charge distribution, have been studied extensively in oxide glasses, the impact of a particular modifier species on the mechanical performance of aluminoborosilicate (ABS) glasses is not well understood. This work compares the indentation properties of six ABS glasses, each of which contains a different network modifier (NWM) with varying field strength (FS). Three alkali and three alkaline earth ABS glasses were designed with low NWM content and [NWM] ≈ [Al₂O₃], to test the modifier FS effect at low concentrations and to maximize three‐coordinated boron. It has been found that both hardness and crack resistance increase with increasing FS in these ABS systems, which is surprising in the context of historical reports. Using¹¹B,²⁷Al, and²⁹Si solid‐state nuclear magnetic resonance, this work provides evidence of how charge distributions differ as a function of NWM species, and how this relates to the observed indentation behaviors.

 

The structure of liquid lithium pyroborate, Li₄B₂O₅(J= Li/B = 2), has been measured over a wide temperature range by high‐energy X‐ray diffraction, and compared to that of its glass and borate liquids of other compositions. The results indicate a gradual increase in tetrahedral boron fraction from 3(1)% to 6(1)% during cooling fromT= 1271(15) to 721(8) K, consistent with the largerN₄ = 10(1)% found for the glass, and literature¹¹B nuclear magnetic resonance measurements. van't Hoff analysis based on a simple boron isomerization reaction BØ₃O^2–⇌ BØO₂^2–yields ΔH= 13(1) kJ mol^–1and ΔS= 40(1) J mol^–1 K^–1for the boron coordination change from 4 to 3, which are, respectively, smaller and larger than found for singly charged isomers forJ ≤ 1. With these, we extend our model forN₄(J,T), nonbridging oxygen fractionf_nbr(J,T), configurational heat capacity , and entropyS^conf(J,T) contributions up toJ= 3. A maximum is revealed in atJ= 1, and shown semi‐quantitatively to lead to a corresponding maximum in fragility contribution, akin to that observed in the total fragilities by temperature‐modulated differential scanning calorimetry. Lithium is bound to 4.6(2) oxygen in the pyroborate liquid, with 2.7(1) bonds centered around 1.946(8) Å and 1.9(1) around 2.42(1) Å. In the glass,n_LiO= 5.4(4), the increase being due to an increase in the number of short Li–O bonds.

 

Germanate glasses are of particular interest for their excellent optical properties as well as their abnormal structural changes that appear with the addition of modifiers, giving rise to the so‐calledgermanate anomaly. This anomaly refers to the nonmonotonic compositional scaling of properties exhibited by alkali germanate glasses and has been studied with various spectroscopy techniques. However, it has been difficult to understand its atomic scale origin, especially since the germanium nucleus is not easily observed by nuclear magnetic resonance. To gain insights into the mechanisms of the germanate anomaly, we have constructed a structural model using statistical mechanics and topological constraint theory to provide an accurate prediction of alkali germanate glass properties. The temperature onsets for the rigid bond constraints are deduced from in situ Brillouin light scattering, and the number of constraints is shown to be accurately calculable using statistical methods. The alkali germanate model accurately captures the effect of the germanate anomaly on glass transition temperature, liquid fragility, and Young's modulus. We also reveal that compositional variations in the glass transition temperature and Young's modulus are governed by the O–Ge–O angular constraints, whereas the variations in fragility are governed by the Ge–O radial constraints.

 

Haven and Verkerk studied the diffusion of ions in ionic conductive glasses with and without an external electric field to better understand the mechanisms behind ionic conductivity. In their work, they introduced the concept now known as Haven’s ratio (H R ), which is defined as the ratio of the tracer diffusion coefficient (D self ) of ions to the diffusion coefficient from steady-state ionic conductivity (D σ ), calculated by the Nernst–Einstein equation. D σ can be challenging to obtain experimentally because the number of charge carriers has to be implied, a subject still under discussion in the literature. Molecular dynamics (MD) allows for direct measurement of the mean squared displacement ( r 2 ) of diffusing cations, which can be used to calculate D, avoiding the definition of a charge carrier. Using MD, the authors have calculated the r 2 of three alkali ions (Li, Na, and K) at different temperatures and concentrations in silicate glass, with and without the influence of an electric field. Results found for H R generally fell close to 0.6 at lower concentrations (x = 0.1) and close to 0.3 at higher concentrations (x = 0.2 and 0.3), comparable to the literature, implying that the electric field introduces new mechanisms for the diffusion of ions and that MD can be a powerful tool to study ionic diffusion in glasses under external electric fields. 

Abstract A 3-D dosimeter fills the need for treatment plan and delivery verification required by every modern radiation-therapy method used today. This report summarizes a proof-of-concept study to develop a water-equivalent solid 3-D dosimeter that is based on novel radiation-hard scintillating material. The active material of the prototype dosimeter is a blend of radiation-hard peroxide-cured polysiloxane plastic doped with scintillating agent P-Terphenyl and wavelength-shifter BisMSB. The prototype detector was tested with 6 MV and 10 MV x-ray beams at Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. A 3-D dose distribution was successfully reconstructed by a neural network specifically trained for this prototype. This report summarizes the material production procedure, the material’s water equivalency investigation, the design of the prototype dosimeter and its beam tests, as well as the details of the utilized machine learning approach and the reconstructed 3-D dose distributions.