EBSD and EDX analyses of a multiphase glass-ceramic obtained by crystallizing an yttrium aluminosilicate glass

A glass with the mol % composition 23.82 Y2O3·39.82 Al2O3·28.50 SiO2·2.91AlF3·4.95 ZrO2 doped with 2 mol % CeF3 is crystallized at 1250 °C for 20 h. The crystallized samples are studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), the SEM-based methods EBSD and EDX, as well as fluorescence microscopy. Six crystalline phases are detected in the residual glass including alumina, YAG, Y-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), and three different yttrium silicates of the composition Y2Si2O7. Chemistry-assisted indexing (ChI) is successfully applied to separate YAG and YSZ in EBSD-scans. YAG displays polygon as well as dendritic growth. Some crystals show both mechanisms at opposite ends, indicating that the growth mechanism is influenced by the chemistry of the surrounding glass matrix.