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This prestigious recognition, granted by CAPES, is awarded across 50 different areas of knowledge, with Isabela's research being recognized in the field of Materials. Along with her, 49 other individuals were honored in their respective fields, selected from over 1,600 submissions across all areas. The Capes Thesis Award is one of the most significant academic honors in Brazil, recognizing groundbreaking research that contributes to scientific, technological, and societal advancement. In 2022, Isabela also won second place in our YCN Photo Contest and contributed to the YCN newsletter, where she discussed part of her thesis. She is now advancing her research, focusing on flash sintering of crystallizing glasses in her postdoctoral work. – Our introduction for the text 

Flash Crystallization of Glass

Recently, our team at LAMAV (Vitreous Materials Laboratory from the Federal University of São Carlos) filed a patent with the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) in Brazil for a novel technique called Flash (Sinter) Crystallization. This innovative process merges Flash Sintering with the glass-ceramic route. It works by applying an electric field to the glass while heating it for crystallization. When the temperature and electric field reach a critical combination, thermal runaway occurs. This results in a feedback loop where increased temperature enhances the material's electrical conductivity, which increases the current passing through it. The heat generated by the current (via the Joule effect) surpasses the glass’s ability to dissipate it, leading to extremely rapid volumetric heating, with rates up to 10⁴ °C/min.

This technique can be applied to bulk glass to trigger crystallization or compacted glass powder to enable simultaneous sintering and crystallization. So far, we have successfully developed glass-ceramics for use as solid electrolytes in solid-state batteries. Notably, we have produced LAGP (Li1.5Al0.5Ge1.5(PO4)3) and LATP (Li1.3Al0.3Ti1.7(PO4)3) with significantly lower furnace temperatures (less than half) and shorter processing times than conventional methods (seconds instead of hours), while achieving superior electrical properties (ionic conductivity almost doubled for LAGP) compared to their traditional counterparts.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2022.118593

https://doi.org/10.1111/jace.19393

Studying materials for solid electrolytes is crucial for the advancement of battery and energy storage technologies, which are increasingly in demand. Solid-state batteries offer numerous benefits, including enhanced safety, higher energy efficiency, greater durability, and improved sustainability when compared to liquid-based batteries.

In addition to reducing energy consumption, Flash (Sinter) Crystallization is particularly useful for processing materials with volatile components, such as lithium and sodium, and for densifying glass-ceramics with glass transition temperatures near the crystallization temperature. This technique presents significant opportunities for producing glass-ceramics via sintering and crystallization of compacted glass powder or through volumetric crystallization in monolithic glasses.

We are now extending the application of this technique to various other systems, including lithium disilicate for dental applications, lithium aluminum silicate glass for zero thermal expansion materials, and many others.

Isabela Reis Lavagnini

Post Doc Fellow

Vitreous Materials Laboratory (LaMaV)

Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) 

Rod. Washington Luís, s/n - Monjolinho, São Carlos - SP, 13565-905, Brazil

isabela@ufscar.br