Principles of Pyrex^® glass chemistry: Structure-property relationships

Pyrex^® glass was one of the first commercial boroaluminosilicate glass compositions, selected in 1915 from thousands of compositions due to its ability to sustain mechanical and thermal shock. While the microscopic structure of Pyrex^® glass has recently been investigated, the microscopic origins of its macroscopic properties are not well understood, i.e., the atomic scale foundation of the original empirical invention of Pyrex^® glass has yet to be established. In this work, we have tackled this problem by investigating the effects of varying Si/Al and Na/B ratios on the boron and aluminum speciation and a range of physical and rheological properties in the Pyrex^® glass family. We show that the canonical Pyrex^® boroaluminosilicate composition is indeed optimal for attaining relatively high values of glass transition temperature and elastic moduli and a low coefficient of thermal expansion, while simultaneously maintaining a high glass-forming ability.