The Effect of the Chemical Composition on Mechanical Properties of CMAS Diopside Glass Ceramics

Abstract

Molecular dynamics simulations were performed on CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 (CMAS) diopside glass ceramics (GCs) to study the effect of nanocrystal on glass and the effect of chemical composition on mechanical properties. Under tensile loading, the GCs demonstrated that the strength lay between its glass and ceramic counterparts and maintained considerable ductility. Moreover, high Mg/Ca ion ratios are conductive to both the strength and ductility of GCs. In addition, Al ions should be avoided as far as possible since they would promote fracture. After analyzing the shear strain and displacement vector map for ion structures, we found that the presence of nanocrystal in glass changes the original deformation pattern and led to the deformation concentration surrounding the nanocrystal. A high Mg/Ca ion ratio would make the deformation more homogeneous, while a high Ca/Mg ion ratio would aggregate the deformation in the glass region near the nanocrystal. The existence of Al ions near the interface between glass and crystal would promote the formation of voids.