The Experimental Investigation of Kinetics of Glass Transition of ZBLAN Glass by using Differential Scanning Calorimetry

Abstract

A ZBLAN glass is a heavy metal fluoride (HMF) glass that possesses high thermal stability and excellent property as a transmitting material. The current study examines the thermal properties of ZBLAN glass utilizing Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) at various heating rates. The temperature of glass transition, Tg, is observed to vary with heating rate, indicating its kinetic nature. Through the use of Kissinger's and Augis- Bennett's methodologies and the heating rate dependency of Tg, the activation energy (E) has been determined. These methodologies have also been used to obtain the fragility index (m), which can be used to evaluate the glass forming ability (GFA) of the system. The fragility index found is greater than 16, indicating that the ZBLAN glass is "fragile."