Crystal growth of F‐phlogopite from glasses of the SiO2–Al2O3–MgO–K2O–F system

Abstract

A study on the devitrification of fluorophyllosilicate glass precursors is presented. The research has been focused on the early stages of the crystallization process and shows the variation in the crystallization mechanism with increasing the fluorine content. The devitrification process has been studied by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and field‐emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). These complementary techniques established that both surface (heterogeneous nucleation) and volume (internal homogeneous nucleation) mechanisms are present in the crystallization process of fluorophlogopite‐based glasses, the latter being predominant. By increasing the percentage of fluorine in the parent glass, a variation in the location of the first crystals developed from the internal volume of the glass toward the external surface was observed. Such an alteration in the crystallization mechanism was also checked by examining the microstructure of crystallized samples prepared under short‐time treatments.