Chemical diffusion and crystalline nucleation during oxidation of ferrous iron-bearing magnesium aluminosilicate glass

Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have been used to evaluate the mechanism and kinetics of oxidation of a Fe²⁺-doped MgO---Al₂O₃---SiO₂ glass (with nominal composition along the enstatite-cordierite-liquid divariant) which was heat treated in air under the time and temperature ranges 10–150 h and 700–800°C, respectively. The results clearly demonstrate that oxidation occurs by a cation diffusion process: specifically, the divalent cations diffuse from the interior of the glass to the free surface where they subsequently react with environmental oxygen to form a two-phase, MgO---(Mg, Fe)₃O₄ crystalline layer which covers the (divalent cation-depleted) glass. Oxidation of some Fe²⁺ within the glass occurs via the inward flux of electron holes (a counterflux to the divalent cation diffusion required to maintain charge neutrality of the glass); this internal oxidation results in the fine-scale ( 1–5 nm), homogeneous nucleation of crystalline (Mg, Fe)₃O₄ within the divalent cation-depleted layer of the glass. Chemical diffusion of an oxygen species is thus demonstrated to be a slower, parallel kinetic process which is not required for oxidation to occur in this material. A first-order analysis of oxidation kinetics in the glass is presented.