Determination of the specific surface energy of oxides and glasses in the solid-state

The production and application of coatings on glasses are used widely in technology. The coatings on glass are used for the regulation of optical, decorative, conducting and other technological and physical properties of glass. In particular, it is important to mention the application of glass fibres for the development of composite materials. However, the specific surface energy of glass and, consequently, its adhesion characteristics are relatively low. The values of these characteristics can be changed by the application of different metallic and nonmetallic coatings is characterised by high surface energy. To produce metallic coatings with the required adhesion strength of glass, it is necessary to have information on the specific surface energy of inorganic glass of different chemical composition. The determination of the relationships between the properties and composition of glass is one of the fundamental problems. At present, a large amount of investigations have been carried out into the investigations of the properties of glass in relation to its composition. However, the problem of establishment of relationships between the properties and composition of glass are especially difficult when examining multicomponent systems (technical glass). It is therefore, in to analyse in each case the properties of not the entire system has a whole but the variation of the properties with temperature of the individual components included in the system, the subsequent application of the additivity principle. The large majority of the glasses represent combinations of oxides of the elements of groups I-III and oxides of the transition metals, forming the mixtures, solid solutions of chemical compounds in the glass production process. Thus, analysis of the characteristics of oxides of the alkali, alkali-earth and transition metals makes it possible to obtain initial data for the evaluation of the surface energy, density, molecular mass of glass containing these oxides. At present, there is a large number of experimental data on the specific surface energy of a wide range of oxides glass at high temperatures. These data have been usually obtained by the method of measuring the value of the wetting angle. However, in practice glass is used at temperatures close to room temperature. It is therefore important to have the values of surface energies especially at these temperatures, which is addressed in the present work