Experimental, theoretical, MD and ML assessment of glass forming ability

Motto: One eye on science, the other on technology, both on education!

Professor Edgar D. Zanotto (EDZ) holds degrees in Materials Engineering (B.Sc), Physics (M.Sc), and Glass Technology (Ph.D) in 1982. He has been active in teaching and research since December 15, 1976. He has coordinated over 90 research projects funded by public agencies and 35 projects in partnership with companies from Brazil, France, the USA, Liechtenstein, and Japan. His and his collaborator´s research activities of the Vitreous Materials Lab of UFSCar focus on dynamic processes-: relaxation, viscous flow and crystallization, and properties of glasses and glass-ceramics. Their research covers a range of topics from purely scientific studies to the development of new glasses and glass-ceramics. The group aims to understand and explain dynamic processes and improve or develop nucleation and growth models of crystals in glasses, kinetics and mechanisms of surface and volumetric crystallization, correlations between structure and nucleation mechanisms, sintering with concurrent crystallization, diffusion processes, structural relaxation, and properties. Zanotto’s team has also been developing artificial intelligence methods to predict and design glasses with desired combinations of properties. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed articles, 2 books, 25 book chapters, and filed 26 patents in Brazil and 10 in other countries. He ranks 7th in the list of patents granted in Brazil to individuals and first at UFSCar. They resulted in 4 spin-off companies founded by his former students. A Scopus database search shows that he is among the 1rt- 5th most prolific researchers in the world with the following keyword combinations: (glass*& nucleation), (glass* & crystallization), glass-ceramic*. EDZ advised approximately 100 MSc and PhD theses and postdocs. He has also supervised over 100 scientific initiation initiatives.

Zanotto chaired approximately 20 workshops and conferences, including 6 of the most important international congresses on glass, and served on the scientific committees of approximately 50 other congresses. He has given over 400 conference talks, including approximately 160 invited lectures and 40 plenary talks at national and international congresses.

For all these developments, Prof. Zanotto was elected to the World Academy of Ceramics (WAC), the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC), the Brazilian Academy of Engineering (ANE), and the São Paulo Academy of Sciences (ACIESP). He is a Fellow of the Fulbright Foundation, the Society of Glass Technology UK, the American Ceramic Society, and the Brazilian Ceramic Society. He is also a council member of the International Commission on Glass (ICG), the International Ceramic Federation, the Society of Glass Technology, and the European FunGlass Center. He has received science 59 awards and distinctions, including the Almirante Álvaro Alberto Prize for Science and Technology (2012), the National Order of Scientific Merit (Comendador, 2006), Grand Cross 2018, Nanocell 2017, Confap 2023, TWAS Engineering Prize 2010, and seven of the most important glass research awards and honors (Zachariasen Award 1990 by the J. Non-Crystalline Solids, Gottardi Prize 1993 by the International Commission on Glass, the G. W. Morey Award 2012 by the American Ceramic Society and the ICG President award 2025 by the International Commission on Glass), and has given some of most celebrated award lectures on glass: W.E.S. Turner Memorial Lecture (SGT, UK), Alfred Cooper Award Lecture (GOMD, USA); Samuel Scholes Memorial Lecture (Alfred University, USA), Frontiers of Glass Science Lecture (ACerS), Guru-Chela Lecture (GOMD-ACerS), and the ICG Lecture (ICG).

Professor Zanotto was an editor of the Journal of Non-crystalline Solids for 15 years, and an advisory board member of the International Materials Reviews UK (associate editor), Materials Research (Ibero-American) - founding editor, 1998-2010; Materials (Switzerland), Discover Applied Sciences (UK), International Journal of Applied Glass Science (USA), Bulletin de la Sociedad Espanola de Ceramica y Vidrio (Spain), Papers in Physics (Argentine), Iranian J. Materials Science and Technology (Iran), J. Mat. Research and Technology (Brazil), and Cerâmica (Brazil).

He has contributed to academia, industry, and society in various executive and advisory positions: co-founder with G. Solórzano of the Brazilian Society for Materials Research (SBPMat) = Brazilian MRS, co-creator of UFSCar´s doctoral program in materials science and engineering (Capes level 7- top in Brazil), former vice-president and currently Emeritus Counselor and Director of the Brazilian Ceramic Association, President of the Board of Trustees of the High Technology Park (ParqTec) in São Carlos. He was also the first president of the Scientific Council of the Serrapilheira Institute, Advisor at IMPA, RJ, Adjunct Coordinator of the Scientific Board of FAPESP for 10 years (1995-2005), member of the engineering committee of CNPq, past-chairman of the Crystallization Committee of the ICG, and past chair of the GOMD - American Ceramic Society.

Edgar Dutra Zanotto

DEMa - UFSCar

Resumo

The fundamental principle that any liquid can be vitrified by sufficiently rapid cooling (exceeding the critical cooling rate, Rc) is well-established. However, as George Morey astutely noted in his classical book, "devitrification is the chief factor which limits the composition range of practical glasses; it is an ever-present danger in all glass manufacturing and working." This phrase highlights the persistent challenge of identifying novel good glass-forming compositions with a tailored combination of properties. This talk examines the dichotomy between the intrinsic ability to crystallize, governed by homogeneous crystal nucleation and growth, which determines the Rc and the glass-forming ability (GFA), and the extrinsic (practical) scenario, dominated by heterogeneous nucleation induced by foreign particles and interfaces. We present a comparative analysis of good and reluctant inorganic glass formers, utilizing experimental measurements, theoretical calculations, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to elucidate the factors controlling devitrification. We will also explore strategies to predict GFA using theoretical calculations and machine learning (ML) to expand the compositional range of practical glasses. Finally, we will dwell on the extreme GFA of albite glass, which does not crystallize after 4 years of thermal treatment!