Calculation of the structure and physical properties of ternary glasses via the phase diagram approach

Abstract Despite great advances in glass science and technology, the debate on the predominant feature of the glass structural model, especially the structure-property relationship, has lasted for more than half a century. Recently, the phase diagram approach has shown to be an effective method for investigating the physical properties of glass but it is restricted to the binary glass systems. Herein, the phase diagram approach was popularized to a series of ternary glass systems with a quantitative prediction of their structure and physical properties, including the density, refractive index, thermal expansion coefficient, elastic modulus and shear modulus. Furthermore, the structure-property relationship of ternary glass and the borate anomaly are reasonably described via the phase diagram approach. Detailed error analysis for the predicted results is also performed. The good agreement between the calculated results and experimental data indicates that the phase diagram approach is a promising method for investigating the structure and physical properties of glasses, providing a novel insight into the study of glass science and technology.