Abstract
We investigated the crystallization and resulting morphology of a stoichiometric barium-silicate glass Ba2Si3O8 (B2S3) using TEM observation and Raman spectroscopy. Spherical crystal growth (i.e., spherulite) of stoichiometric B2S3 phase was observed in the heat-treated glass samples, and the size of the spherulites drastically increased as the temperature increased during the heat-treatment process. It was also found that an initial precipitating phase in the precursive stage of crystallization is neither the B2S3 phase nor other crystalline phases in the BaO–SiO2 system. It was deduced that a metastable phase precipitates prior to the formation of spherulite and acts as nucleation site for the spherulite.
