Glass

High-temperature durability and reliability are key factors in manufacture and application of advanced ceramics and glasses. Thermo-mechanical relaxation phenomena, crystallisation, sintering, and the concentration and mobility of volatiles (e.g. hydrogen, water, carbon gases, oxygen) are of importance within that context. By means of problem- and technology-oriented development, adaptation and cross linking of thermal testing methods in internal and external co-operations, we support the reliable use of advanced glassy and crystalline materials.

Research topics

• Hydrogen in fused silica (figure)
• Water in silicate glasses and melts
• Sintering of glass matrix composites
• Gas sensor controlled precursor debindering
• Ceramic protection layers from Al₂O₃ sol-suspensions (micrograph)

Methods and technical equipment

Glass synthesis und characterisation

• Glass melting furnaces
• Pressure chamber- and vacuum furnaces
• Glass powder milling
• Glass preparation
• Optical refractometer
• UV-VIS / NIR-spectrometer

Thermal analysis and thermally induced degassing

• Vacuum-hot-extraction with mass spectrometer detection of evolved gases
• High temperature viscometer and -dilatometer
• Differential thermal analyser, differential thermal gravimeter with mass spectrometer gas detection
• Large capacity differential thermal gravimeter
• Dynamic mechanical thermal analyser

Ceramic layers and colloidal SiO₂ and Al₂O₃ suspensions

• Sol-gel-synthesis, spin- and dip-coating, rheometer, photon correlation spectrometer, particle size analyser

Crystallisation and sintering

• Gradient furnaces, vacuum and glove box furnaces, hot stage microscopes, vertical dilato¬meter, optical and interference microscope, load-defined vertical dilatometer

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