Electrochemically induced crystallization in lead fluoroborate glasses below the glass transition temperature Available to Purchase

Lead fluoroborate $(BO1.5–PbO–PbF2)$ glasses were prepared by melt quenching and studied here in terms of (micro)structural and electrical properties. The results show that electrochemically induced surface crystallization may also occur below the glass transition temperature. As previously proposed elsewhere and shown here, occurrence of this phenomenon arose from a field-induced redox reaction at the electrodes, followed by crystallite nucleation. Once nucleated, growth of $β-PbF2$ crystallites, with the indication of incorporating reduced lead ions $(Pb+)$⁠, was both (micro)structurally and electrically detectable and was analyzed. In particular, the authors introduce a procedure combining impedance spectroscopy and polarization/depolarization techniques to also monitor this phenomenon.