Alkali-free aluminosilicate glass has several advantages, including a low thermal expansion coefficient and density, high elastic modulus, and excellent chemical and thermal stability, making it an ideal substrate material for TFT-LCD and OLED applications. Understanding the relationship between the composition-microstructure-properties of this glass is crucial for designing materials with optimal properties and suitable process parameters. In this work, we investigated how the composition affects the microstructure and properties of alkali-free aluminosilicate substrate glass. We elucidated the relationship between composition-microstructure-properties through experiments and molecular dynamics simulations. As B₂O₃ replaced Al₂O₃ in the glass, the content of [AlO₄] in the network structure decreased, while the amounts of [BO₃] and [BO₄] increased. The triangular structure of [BO₃] expanded the network, reduced its connectivity, and loosened the overall structure. Consequently, the glass melt's viscosity, viscous activation energy, and melting temperature decreased. This study provided essential data and a theoretical foundation for industrial production based on the composition-microstructure-properties relationship.

The Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan on March 11, 2011, produced large amounts of Cs-polluted soil which must be controlled to prevent the spread of hazardous Cs into the environment. In this paper, the effects of heat treatment on the structure and properties of Cs-containing glass-ceramics, as a simulated nuclear waste form, were systematically investigated. Cesium atoms are chemically bonded in the pollucite structure, and the amorphous phase further encapsulates the pollucite crystals in the glass-ceramics, thus providing an extra protective layer for the immobilized Cs. XRD analysis, Raman and FT-IR studies on the glass-ceramics synergistically indicated that the optimum crystallization temperature for pollucite is around 1000 ℃. The pollucite is predominantly the main crystalline phase with a narrow crystal size distribution between 0.5 and 2 μm. Standard leaching test results show that the leaching rate of Cs was very low (3.0 × 10⁻³ g/(m²·d)). The study offers a practical method for immobilizing Cs in pollucite-base glass-ceramics. Moreover, the experimentally obtained data may provide some important references for converting Cs-polluted soil into pollucite-base glass-ceramics waste form.