If silica in the molten state is cooled very slowly it crystallizes at the freezing
point. However, if the molten silica is cooled more rapidly it is unable to get all
its atoms into the orderly arrangement required of a crystal and the resulting
solid is a disorderly arrangement required of
a
crystal and the resulting solid is
a disorderly arrangement which is called a glass. Figure 4.28 shows such a
structure (compare this with the orderly structure of crystalline silica
represented in Figure 4.24). The temperature at which molten silica turns into
a glass is called the glass transition temperature T
g
an ...
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