What is the difference between fused quartz and fused silica?
Quartz. Fused Silica and Quartz are both extremely pure materials featuring very low thermal expansion and excellent optical qualities. The main difference between the two is that Fused Silica is composed of a non-crystalline silica glass, while Quartz is made from crystalline silica. …
How do the structure of quartz and quartz glass differ from each other?
As an amorphous substance, glass has a random molecular structure, while quartz has a symmetrical molecular structure. Quartz can be subject to greater temperature and pressure as compared to glass. Both quartz and glass are utilized for electrical purposes. Glass is an insulator, while quartz is a conductor.
What is fused silica used for?
Fused silica and quartz are used in the manufacture of many optical parts—such as lenses, mirrors, UV and IR transmitting optics, and metrology components—due to their ability to transmit light in the visible, ultraviolet, and infrared range.
Is silica same as quartz?
What is quartz? Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula SiO2, commonly found in nature as quartz. It is the most abundant mineral found at Earth’s surface, and its unique properties make it one of the most useful natural substances.
How strong is fused quartz?
Mechanical properties of fused quartz are much the same as those of other glasses. The material is extremely strong in compression, with design compressive strength of better than 1.1 x 109 Pa (160,000 psi).
Can you fused quartz?
These materials are manufactured through dissimilar processes at disparate costs, using different components, and have different properties. Fused quartz is processed by fusing powdered crystal quartz in a hydrogen-oxygen flame and is manufactured to various purity specifications, for several specific uses.
Under what conditions does quartz turn into glass?
When we compare the two solids, we see that quartz is a crystalline solid with relatively long-range order and glass is amorphous solid with short range order and has a tendency to flow. When quartz is heated, it can be easily converted into glass.
Why is the window glass of the old buildings thick at the bottom?
The glass panes in the windows of old buildings are found to be a little thicker at the bottom as compared to the top of the window panes and this because of the tendency of glass to flow very slowly and thus, glass is known as super cooled liquid. This process is very slow just like the flow in glass.
Is fused silica birefringent?
UV Grade Fused Silica is synthetic amorphous silicon dioxide of extremely high purity. Fused silica is used for both transmissive and reflective optics, especially where high laser damage threshold is required.
Is silica a crystal?
Silica, or silicon dioxide, is the oxide of silicon. It is found in nature in several forms; one of which is quartz. Quartz is the second most common mineral on Earth. Silica(quartz); Silica(quartz) is a colorless crystal like beryl.
How do you make fused quartz?
Fused quartz is produced by fusing (melting) high-purity silica sand, which consists of quartz crystals. There are four basic types of commercial silica glass: Type I is produced by induction melting natural quartz in a vacuum or an inert atmosphere.
Does quartz expand when heated?
Measurements of volume expansion during heating showed up to 37% volume expansion (see Fig. 4). There were large variations between the different quartz sources. Volume expansion started for most samples around 1500°C and reached its maximum around 1800°C.
What’s the difference between quartz and fused silica?
While used for similar applications, fused silica and quartz glass have key differences. Consider this. According to AZO Materials: “This synthetic material, normally referred to as synthetic fused silica, has better optical properties and is somewhat more expensive than the other type.
Why is fused quartz at a high cost?
Fused quartz is produced at a very high cost, because of the difficulty in gathering the components and also that of the process itself.
What’s the best way to make fused quartz?
There are two methods for producing fused quartz: electric fusion and flame fusion. The electric fusion is the most commonly used melting process for manufacturing fused quartz glass. We use fused quartz as it has a very low OH (hydroxl) content which helps retard devitrification. One example of fused quartz is GE 124.
What is the process by which fused silica is produced?
The process by which fused silica is produced is called chemical vapor deposition (CVD). One example of fused silica would be Corning® 7980. To keep these varieties of fused quartz and fused silica straight manufacturers have different grades and labels for the products they produce.