Effects of B2O3 substitution for Al2O3 on the crystallization and properties of translucent mica glass-ceramics

Abstract The effects of substituting Al2O3 with B2O3 on the structure, crystallization, mechanical properties, thermal properties and optical properties of translucent mica glass-ceramics were thoroughly investigated. The results demonstrated that the addition of 0.5 wt% B2O3 was optimum for glass precipitation, which increases the crystallinity of glass-ceramics and provides good translucency. When the content of B2O3 was greater than 0.5 wt%, both crystallinity and translucency decreased noticeably. The replacement of B2O3 for Al2O3 had no influence on the type of crystal phase and the precipitation of tetrasilicic fluoromica with non-stoichiometric ratio, while it did have an effect on the crystallinity and structure. The crystal sizes of glass-ceramics were in the nanoscale range and the transmittance test results indicated that they exhibit excellent translucency.