Non-isothermal study of the devitrification kinetics of fluoroindate glasses

Abstract The understanding of the kinetics of devitrification of a glass is important for anticipating its stability in a particular purpose, such as fiber-drawing processes. The crystallization kinetics of (BaF 2 ) 16 (ZnF 2 ) 20 (SrF 2 ) 20 (NaF) 2 (GaF 3 ) 5 (InF 3 ) 36 (GdF 3 ) 1 glass prepared by quenching were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Avrami's exponent ( n ) obtained by a non-isothermal method was 4.3 for a solid and 2.4 for a powdered sample. According to the classical interpretation of n , these magnitudes correspond to an interface-controlled crystal growth and a diffusion-controlled crystal growth, respectively. The activation energies for crystallization ( E ) was 62±1 kJ/mol for solid glass and 245±2 kJ/mol for powdered glass. These results are discussed in terms of glass particle size.