Composition dependence of mechanical property changes in electron irradiated borosilicate glasses

Mechanical properties evolution of three kinds of ternary Na2O-B2O3-SiO2 (labeled as NBS) glasses induced by 1.2 MeV electrons has been investigated by nano-indentation measurements. The glass samples were prepared with different values of the molar ratio R = [Na2O]/[B2O3] (0.4, 0.75 and 1.34), while the molar ratio K = [SiO2]/[B2O3] was kept constant as 4.04. The results indicated that both the mean hardness and the reduced Young modulus were decreased as a function of electron dose and the decrements are significantly related with the glass compositions. The toughness of all these three NBS glasses was slightly improved due to electron irradiation. The mechanical properties of glass samples with greater R value tend to be less affected under electron irradiation.