High-performance Glass Research Articles

Construction of fiber-reinforced composites with high-thickness: Achieving enhanced interfacial and mechanical properties through upconversion particles assisted near-infrared photopolymerizaton

Glass fiber reinforced polymer-based composites prepared by photocuring technology offer notable advantages. However, the traditional UV curing technology faces challenges in balancing curing efficiency, penetration depth, and mechanical properties when producing high-thickness fiber-reinforced composites. This study introduced a new method for crafting thick glass fiber reinforced composites via upconversion particle-assisted near-infrared photopolymerization (UCAP). Near-infrared (NIR) radiation had superior penetration in glass fiber composites system, effectively curing of specimens exceeding 20 mm in thickness. Through micro-CT and atomic force microscopy, it was verified that UCAP specimens had fewer interfacial defects and a wider interphase, making contribution to enhanced interlaminar and interfacial shear strength. Additionally, uniform curing effectively alleviated stress concentration under external forces, resulting in a 78.5 % increase in flexural strength and a 32.1 % increase in impact toughness for UCAP specimens compared to UV-cured ones. This approach facilitated rapid outdoor curing of large-sized glass fiber composites with sustained structural stability, showcasing the potential application of UCAP in high-performance glass fiber composites rapid prototyping.

Molecular investigation on interfacial toughening between silane coupling agent treated glass fiber and cement

Silane coupling agents (SCAs) are widely used as adhesion promoters to tightly bond glass fiber (GF) and cement matrix (CM) for developing sustainable and high-performance glass fiber-reinforced cementitious (GFRC) composites. This study uses molecular dynamics (MD) simulation to examine the effect of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APS) on CM/GF interfacial properties. Pure cement and nine cement models bonded to APS-modified GF with APS concentrations of 0.00%, 12.50%, 25.00%, 37.50%, 50.00%, 62.50%, 75.00%, 87.50%, and 100.00% are constructed. It is shown that pure CSH system experiences interfacial delamination. With increasing APS from 0.00% to 37.50%, the failure mode transits from interfacial delamination to CSH delamination, and with increasing APS to 100.00%, it transits to interfacial delamination. Meanwhile, it is measured that with increasing APS from 0.00% to 37.50%, the tensile strength increases from 0.48 to 0.58 GPa and the adhesion energy increases from 0.71 to 0.90 J⋅m−2. Comparatively, with increasing APS to 100.00%, the tensile strength decreases to 0.26 GPa, and the adhesion energy decreases to 0.23 J⋅m−2. Moreover, the interfacial structure and chemical bond analysis demonstrate that with increasing APS from 0.00% to 37.50%, the peak of H2O molecules decreases, which denotes stronger interfacial bonding. With increasing APS from 37.50% to 100.00%, the peak of the H2O molecules increases, which induces low interfacial bonding. These findings provide a basis for optimizing APS concentrations for specific performance enhancements of GFRC materials.

Innovative pathways to high-performance glass ceramics: Harnessing nature's treasures with chromium and zirconium nucleation catalysts

This study explores the novel production of high-performance glass ceramics (GCs) by harnessing readily available and cost-effective raw materials schist, dolomite, and magnesite for the first time. The nominal composition for the base glass, G(30), was designed based on the eutectic composition of the diopside-anorthite ratio with 30% enstatite content within the quaternary CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 system. To enhance nucleation, chromium (Cr2O3) and zirconium (ZrO2) oxide were separately introduced into the base glass batch in two ratios (0.5% and 1%), producing four additional batches-Cr(0.5), Cr(1), Zr(0.5), and Zr(1), orderly. All these batches were melted at temperatures ranging from 1450 °C to 1550 °C then cast into glass discs and rods. Double-stage heat treatment schedule, 750 °C /2 h followed by 950 °C and 1050 °C/1 h separately, was employed to induce the transformation of prepared glass into GCs. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) techniques were applied to orderly investigate the developed crystalline phases and the prevailing micro-structures of the prepared GCs. The glass ceramic with the highest Cr2O3 ratio, Cy(1) which was treated at 1050 °C/1 h, displayed the most adequate microstructure and minimal pore formation in comparison with other GCs. As well, the favorable physicochemical properties, Vickers microhardness (6.43 GPa), low thermal expansion coefficient (0.171 ×10 −6 °C−1) at 29–100 °C, and the exceptional resistance for acid and alkali corrosion (95%), nominate such GS sample, Cy(1), for several architectural applications.

A novel combustion drying technology for in-situ preparation of glass fiber composite SiO2 aerogel thin felt with excellent thermal insulation performance

Glass fiber reinforced composite aerogel felt is an important thermal insulation material, but its thermal insulation performance is often compromised due to the limitation of preparation methods. In this study, the high performance glass fiber composite silica aerogel insulation thin felt was successfully prepared by in-situ sol-gel impregnation and combustion drying process for the first time. Especially, the drying time for the whole procedure is extremely quick, only taking a few minutes. The composite felt shows the characteristics of light weight, porous, hydrophobic, and has good mechanical properties. More importantly, due to the unique composite structure of the prepared felt, it has extremely low thermal conductivity (0.016 W/(m·K)) and thermal stability. The infrared thermal imager further confirmed that glass fiber composite silica aerogel thin felt has excellent thermal insulation ability, and has promising application potential in the thermal management system of power battery. Finally, the preparation process and drying mechanism based on sol-gel impregnation combined with combustion drying technology were discussed. Compared with the common technology, the preparation method has significant advantages of high efficiency and low cost, which offer an innovative technical approach for producing composite aerogel felt.

GSHCAL at future [formula omitted] Higgs factories

The excellent jet energy resolution is crucial for the precise measurement of the Higgs properties at future e+e− Higgs factories, such as the Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC). For this purpose, a novel design of the particle flow oriented hadronic calorimeter based on glass scintillators (GSHCAL) is proposed. Compared with the designs based on gas or plastic scintillators, the GSHCAL can achieve a higher sampling fraction and more compact structure in a cost-effective way, benefiting from the high density and low cost of glass scintillators. In order to explore the physics potential of the GSHCAL, its intrinsic energy resolution and the contribution to the measurement of the hadronic system was investigated by Monte Carlo simulations. Preliminary results show that the stochastic term of hadronic energy resolution can reach around 24% and the Boson Mass Resolution (BMR) can reach around 3.38% when the GSHCAL is applied. Besides, the key technical R&D of high-performance glass scintillator tiles is also introduced.

Accelerating design of glass substrates by machine learning using small-to-medium datasets

The demand for high-performance displays is driving the development of glass substrates with extremely low strain variation during manufacturing. To achieve the necessary balance of physical properties to resist strain, the traditional compositional design methods for glass substrates like trial-and-error and classical computational techniques should be optimized. As an alternative approach, machine learning (ML) algorithms have emerged for designing new glass compositions. In this work, we conduct ML research focused on the compositional design for high-performance glass substrates. We employ three ML algorithms i.e., Random Forest (RF), Classification And Regression Tree (CART) and k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN) to predict five physical properties that are key to the performance of alkaline-free aluminosilicate glass substrates. By using only small-to-medium dataset sizes, our model reaches a high coefficient of determination of 0.9879. Furthermore, our model achieves an accurate generalized prediction of 50 experimental data and enables the prediction and design of glass substrate compositions with advanced comprehensive properties.

Mechanical properties of flexible composites reinforced with high-performance glass fiber multi-axial warp-knitted fabrics

This paper investigates the quasi-static mechanical properties and damage behavior of flexible composites prepared from high-performance glass fiber-based multi-axial warp knitted fabrics as reinforcement and high tenacity environmentally friendly thermoplastic polyurethane as a matrix. The composites were produced by attaching thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) to the top and bottom of the fabric using a vulcanization machine, followed by hot-pressing for different temperatures and time settings. Moreover, the effects of different preparation processes on the tensile strength, static puncture resistance, and tear strength of flexible composites were investigated in this paper. The results indicated that both hot-pressing temperature and vulcanization time had a significant impact on the mechanical properties of the composites. With an optimum vulcanization temperature of 185°C and a vulcanization time of 10 min, the composite provides optimum tensile strength and puncture resistance. Tear strength is the worst and is related to the reinforcement’s organisational structure and the interfacial bond’s strength. The results of this study are of theoretical and practical significance for applying high-performance multi-axial warp-knitted flexible composites as raw materials in the construction field.

Molecular dynamics simulations study on structure and properties of CaO–MgO–B2O3–Al2O3–SiO2 glasses with different B2O3/MgO

CaO–MgO–B2O3–Al2O3–SiO2 glasses are of great important in glass fiber industry. In this work, the structures, thermal stabilities, and elastic moduli of the glasses are studied using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations by gradual substitution between B2O3 and MgO. The results show that with the increase of the ratios of B2O3/MgO, aluminum shows complex coordination changes, but the four-coordination aluminum is still the dominating specie. The boron coordination environment does not change significantly with the substitution and the three-coordination boron keeps staying at a high level. The percentages of bridge oxygen and network connectivity (NC) in the glasses increase with the increase of B2O3/MgO ratios, which enhances the glass network and improve the thermal stabilities. The elastic moduli calculated from simulations are in good agreement with the experiments. The study shows that high content of Mg2+ can increase atomic packing density. The introduction of boron brings more [BO3] structures, which further weakens the stiffness of the glass network. Insights of the effect of B2O3/MgO ratios on the structures and properties will facilitate the development of high-performance glass fibers.

Ag Nanoparticles Optimized the Optical Properties and Stability of CsPbBrI2 Glass for High Quality Backlight Display

All-inorganic perovskite CsPbX3 (X = Cl, Br, I) nanocrystals (NCs) have generated significant attention in the emerging display industry because of their narrow-band emission, high color purity, and facile preparation and processing. By controlling the deposition of Ag nanoparticles in the B–Si–Zn glass matrix, CsPbBrI2 NC glass with significantly enhanced photoluminescence (PL) intensity (about 6.3 times) was successfully prepared, and the photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) is increased from 12.4% to 36.9%. More meaningfully, the high-performance glass powders were incorporated into polystyrene (PS) films through solution and blending techniques, and the films prepared by the latter had superior color coordinates and environmental stability, particularly the intense blue light stability. Under conditions of 60 °C, 90% relative humidity (RH), and 10 000 nit blue light irradiation for 40 d, the PL intensity decline rate of blended film does not exceed 5%. In addition, the light conversion film based on Ag@CsPbBrI2 glass with CsPbBr3 glass powders exhibits a wide color gamut of 125.2% of the NTSC 1953 standard, which shows richer colors than commercial displays on the liquid crystal display (LCD) screen, further opening the space for the development of the quantum dot film industry.

Assessing the influence of glass properties on cabin solar heating and range of an electric vehicle using a comprehensive system model

As consumer adoption and total energy consumption of electric vehicles continues to rapidly increase, it is important to develop comprehensive system modeling frameworks that consider the complex interactions of their mechanical, electrical, and thermal subsystems to guide component technology development. In this study, such a comprehensive system model of a generic long-range electric vehicle is developed and used specifically to assess the influence of cabin glass radiative properties on vehicle performance. The system model incorporates simplified models for all salient components in the electric traction drive, cabin HVAC, and battery subsystems, and uses a higher fidelity cabin thermal model that is able to capture the individual properties of the cabin glass used in the vehicle. The system performance is evaluated under a dynamic NEDC drive cycle which is repeated until battery depletion to determine a vehicle range. The system model is used to study five different glazing design cases, each corresponding to different transmission and reflection properties of the glass, by predicting their impact on the vehicle range. The cases span all theoretically possible glass properties while also enabling inspection of practical glass technologies that are available or under development to be adopted in modern electric vehicles. The influence of glass on vehicle range is then further compared at various locations across the United States to understand and illustrate the effects of ambient conditions and solar load. The system model predicts a vehicle range of 188.5 miles under a high solar loading scenario typical for Phoenix, AZ using traditional glass properties, which increases to a range of 221.6 miles using high-performance glass properties, representing a significant potential gain of 33.1 miles using technologies available on the market today. Under this same loading scenario, the glass properties at their extreme physical limits could theoretically affect the vehicle range by up to 92.5 miles. The influence of the glass properties is location-specific, and the model predicts that using the same glass at different locations can affect the range of vehicle by up to 100.8 miles for traditional glass properties and 73.4 miles for high-performance glass properties.

High-performance glass filters for capturing and culturing circulating tumor cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts

Various liquid biopsy methods have been developed for the non-invasive and early detection of diseases. In particular, the detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in blood has been receiving a great deal of attention. We have been developing systems and materials to facilitate such liquid biopsies. In this study, we further developed glass filters (with various patterns of holes, pitches, and non-adhesive coating) that can capture CTCs, but not white blood cells. We optimized the glass filters to capture CTCs, and demonstrated that they could be used to detect CTCs from lung cancer patients. We also used the optimized glass filters for detecting CAFs. Additionally, we further developed a system for visualizing the captured cells on the glass filters. Finally, we demonstrated that we could directly culture the captured cells on the glass filters. Based on these results, our high-performance glass filters appear to be useful for capturing and culturing CTCs and CAFs for further examinations.

Comparative Study on the Effect of Aluminium Trihydrate and Carbon Nanofillers on Thermal Properties of Glass Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites

High performance glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites are in greater demand in several industrial applications, from civil structures to aviation industry. The epoxy has highly cross-linked structure and is found to be high performance polymer. Further, carbon nanofillers such as multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) and thermally stable microfiller aluminium trihydrate (ATH) are being used to improve the thermal properties. GNP and MWCNT posses high aspect ratio and specific surface area contributing to improvement in thermal properties of composites. In spite of this, there are difficulties connected with nanofiller addition, such as dispersion and interaction. The fabricated nanocomposites are based on ECR glass fiber and epoxy resin by adding GNP, MWCNT and ATH fillers using pultrusion process assisted by ultrasonication. For the purpose of comparison, composites containing only MWCNT, GNP and ATH were also tested. The XRD and SEM were used to study the fillers dispersion and interaction. The thermogravemetric analysis(TGA) was carried out to determine the thermal stability of composites. From the thermal analysis result, it is found that the epoxy-MWCNT-GNP-ATH composite has enhanced thermal stability due to the addition of ATH micro filler.

Hot dense silica glass with ultrahigh elastic moduli

Silicate and oxide glasses are often chemically doped with a variety of cations to tune for desirable properties in technological applications, but their performances are often limited by relatively lower mechanical and elastic properties. Finding a new route to synthesize silica-based glasses with high elastic and mechanical properties needs to be explored. Here, we report a dense SiO2-glass with ultra-high elastic moduli using sound velocity measurements by Brillouin scattering up to 72 GPa at 300 K. High-temperature measurements were performed up to 63 GPa at 750 K and 59 GPa at 1000 K. Compared to compression at 300 K, elevated temperature helps compressed SiO2-glass effectively overcome the kinetic barrier to undergo permanent densification with enhanced coordination number and connectivity. This hot compressed SiO2-glass exhibits a substantially high bulk modulus of 361–429 GPa which is at least 2–3 times greater than the metallic, oxide, and silicate glasses at ambient conditions. Its Poisson’s ratio, an indicator for the packing efficiency, is comparable to the metallic glasses. Even after temperature quench and decompression to ambient conditions, the SiO2-glass retains some of its unique properties at compression and possesses a Poisson’s ratio of 0.248(11). In addition to chemical alternatives in glass syntheses, coupled compression and heating treatments can be an effective means to enhance mechanical and elastic properties in high-performance glasses.

GFRP reinforced high performance glass–bolted joints: Development of a simplified finite element-based method for analysis

This paper presents the development of finite element (FE)-based computational models that can be used for predicting the failure load of GFRP-reinforced annealed and heat-strengthened glass–bolted joints. Stress analysis of a single-bolt, single-glass-piece case was first carried out in order to develop the computational models and to establish an appropriate failure criterion for the GFRP-reinforced glass–bolted joints. The computational models were then calibrated against the experimental results reported in a previous experimental study involving reference and reinforced double-lap tension joint test specimens. The paper shows that the failure of both reference and reinforced glass–bolted joints can be predicted using the maximum principal-tensile-stress-based failure of glass. The results also confirm that the use of adhesively bonded GFRP reinforcement has potential to increase the load capacity of the reinforced glass–bolted joints compared to the reference glass–bolted joints.

Low-Velocity Impact Response on Glass Fiber Reinforced 3D Integrated Woven Spacer Sandwich Composites.

This study presents an experimental investigation on the low-velocity impact response of three-dimensional integrated woven spacer sandwich composites made of high-performance glass fiber reinforced fabric and epoxy resin. 3D integrated woven spacer sandwich composites with five different specifications were produced using a hand lay-up process and tested under low-velocity impact with energies of 5 J, 10 J, and 15 J. The results revealed that the core pile’s heights and diverse impact energies significantly affect the stiffness and energy absorption capacity. There is no significant influence of face sheet thickness on impact response. Moreover, the damage morphologies of 3D integrated woven spacer sandwich composites under different impact energies were analyzed by simple visualization of the specimen. Different damage and failure mechanisms were observed, including barely visible damage, visible damage, and clearly visible damage. Moreover, it was noticed that the damage of 3D integrated woven spacer sandwich composites samples only constraints to the impacted area and does not affect the integrity of the samples.

Visualization of Acoustic Comfort in an Open-Plan, High-Performance Glass Building

The aesthetic and functional appeal of high-performance, open-plan office buildings presents special challenges. Extensive use of glass at the building’s perimeter to improve visual comfort and office communication can negatively impact acoustic comfort without proper design considerations. This study investigates the utility of a novel visualization approach to documenting the interactional impact of acoustical comfort on the health and well-being of occupants in an open-office environment. Room acoustic measurements of background noise and speech transmission index were conducted and distraction distances were calculated and visualized using a mapping technique. In addition, a comprehensive pre- and post-occupancy evaluation protocol was employed. The paper illustrates the reliability of the visualization approach to aid in the interpretation and comparison of various open-office acoustic solutions from a human-centric acoustic environment perspective.

Experimental study on shear performance of improved high-performance polymer cement mortar–glass fiber reinforced plastic reinforced masonry wall

The improved high-performance polymer cement mortar (PCM) and glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) system reinforcement was used in the research to strengthen and repair the masonry structure, so as to improve its bond stress, anchoring force, and integral performance without changing the original structure and further study the shear performance of masonry structure strengthened by the combination of the two. The optimum ratio of improved high-performance PCM was determined by analyzing the bend-press ratio of PCM test block. Improved high-performance PCM and GFRP were combined to strengthen the damaged masonry wall, and a five-piece masonry wall composed of “improved high-performance PCM+ with or without GFRP+ different original wall failure modes before reinforcement” was designed. Through diagonal loading shear test, the shear strength, vertical displacement, horizontal relative displacement, and failure models of masonry walls were obtained, and the effects of five different reinforcement methods and different materials on shear strength, stiffness, ductility, and failure modes of masonry walls were studied. The results show that compared with the unreinforced original wall, the shear strength of the masonry wall reinforced with the improved O4PCM is 43.5% higher, and its stiffness is also greatly improved, but the failure mode is still brittle failure; the shear strength of masonry walls strengthened by O4PCM and GFRP is 6.5% higher than that of masonry walls strengthened by O4PCM alone, and the stiffness is also increased. Its failure mode changes from brittle failure to ductile failure; with a failure mode of ductile failure, the shear strength of masonry walls strengthened by P4PCM and GFRP and that strengthened by P6PCM and GFRP are 4.8% and 12.7% higher than that strengthened by O4PCM and GFRP, respectively, and the stiffness is also increased compared with that strengthened by O4PCM and GFRP. After experimental comparison, it is the best scheme to strengthen masonry wall with improved P6PCM and GFRP.

Technique enables injection molding of glass

Researchers have developed a new processing technique that could enable mass production of intricate, high-performance glass objects that cost as little as plastic ones ( Science 2021, DOI: 10.1126...

Improving the Mechanical Performance of Shell Precast Concrete Blocks for Coastal Protection Structures of Hydraulic Works

Although the use of concrete and reinforced concrete for construction has been widespread, more studies are needed on marine structures exposed directly to corrosive environments to prolong their service life. This paper proposes a new type of shell precast concrete block for coastal structures, studying a beam consisting of 15mm High-Performance Glass Fiber-Reinforced Concrete (HPGFRC) at the bottom and 45mm Traditional Concrete (TC) for the rest of the structure. Steel bar reinforcements were placed at the bottom with a concrete cover of 25mm to avoid abrupt failure. The strength classes of HPGFRC and TC were 60MPa and 30MPa respectively. A reference beam consisting of TC only was also prepared for comparison. The four-point flexural bending test results showed that the first cracking strength of the proposed beam was 20% higher, as HPGFRC performed better on tension than TC. Additionally, HPGFRC's maximum strength was 25% greater than TC's. Furthermore, HPGFRC possessed more durable characteristics such as waterproof grade, abrasion resistance, and shrinkage than TC, promising to protect the reinforcement from the aggressive marine environment and corrosion, prolonging the service life of the structure.

Preparation of silica antireflection film based on sol-gel method

Glass antireflection membrane can effectively increase the collection and utilization of sunlight by daylighting equipment, and has been widely used in solar energy related fields. Therefore, exploring the development of high-performance glass antireflection membrane is an essential topic in the current energy utilization research. This paper introduces the general situation of the preparation technology of antireflection membrane internationally, especially the specific method of producing antireflection membrane of silica by sol-gel method in the research. According to the analysis of the results, the significance of membrane surfactant which is similar to Triton X-100 was obtained, and the development prospect of this technology was discussed.