Size distribution of BaF2 nanocrystallites in transparent glass ceramics

In glasses with the composition 1.9 Na2O–15 K2O–7.5 Al2O3–69.6 SiO2–6 BaF2 (in mol.%), BaF2 nanocrystalline precipitates are formed upon heat treatment. Using dark-field and bright-field transmission electron micrographs, crystallite size distributions are obtained for samples crystallized at various temperatures. According to the “tomato-salad problem”, the size distributions are corrected and then compared to various theories of grain growth taking into account coarsening of the crystallites during heat treatment. The experimental crystallite size distributions show for smaller mean crystallite sizes a more symmetric shape in comparison to the theories of Lifshitz–Slyozov–Wagner (LSW) or Brailsford and Wynblatt (B&W). With increasing mean crystallite sizes to about 18 nm at higher heat-treatment temperatures, the full width at half maximum of the observed distributions decreases and becomes even narrower than the LSW function. These findings indicate that in the investigated nano glass ceramics no coarsening by Ostwald ripening or coalescence occurs. This is explained by the formation of a diffusion barrier around each nanocrystallite which limits the size of the crystallites and hence results in such a narrow and uniform crystallite size distribution.