50-Year Anniversary of the Method of Determining the Parameters of Crystal Nucleation in Inorganic Glasses

The results obtained by the “developing” method, namely, the method of determination of the crystal nucleating parameters in inorganic glasses, are given starting from the first appearance of the studies on the determination of the stationary nucleation rate in the glass having the stoichiometric composition of lithium disilicate to the latest research on the determination of the energy barrier at the formation of the critical size nucleus in a wide range of glasses in the lithium silicate system (23.4–46.00 mol % Li2O), in sodium silicate glasses with Na2O content of 42.0 and 44.0 mol %, in sodium-chromium silicate glass with the composition of 34.67Na2O · 2.74Cr2O3 · 62.68SiO2, in lithium alumosilicate glass with the composition of 35.6Li2O 3.6Al2O3 · 60.8SiO2, and in a series of sodium-zinc phosphate glasses (66.7ZnO ∙ 33.3P2O5; 51.4ZnO ∙ 16.3Na2O ∙ 32.3P2O5; 6.7Li2O ∙ 6.7Na2O ∙ 6.7K2O ∙ 45.0ZnO ∙ 2.0Al2O3 ∙ 33.0P2O5) under conditions of homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation. Homogeneous nucleation is performed for glasses without photosensitive additives and in glasses containing the photosensitive additive of silver (gold) in the amount of 0.05 wt % over 100% without irradiation. Heterogeneous nucleation was carried out in the following cases: in the 26Li2O · 74SiO2 glass with shifted composition on active bubbles; in glasses with photosensitive additives of silver (gold) and X-ray irradiation; in glasses based on the stoichiometric composition of lithium disilicate; and in glasses of the sodium-zinc phosphate system containing different amounts of water. For both homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation, temperature dependences of the stationary rate of crystal nucleation Ist(T) have a domed shape with a maximum at a temperature Тmax which is close to the glass transition temperature (Tg) for all studied glasses.