Important Property For Glasswares That Are Heated?

Having a high heating capacity is the most important property for glassware to have if they are to be heated.

• Properties of heated glassware

Glassware that can be heated has a higher heating capacity. Glass is actually a super-cooled liquid. If you were to look at the molecular physics and thermodynamics of glass you would see that when the liquid is super cooled it is in a crystalline structure. It can only be seen with a microscope given the scale it has. It would look like a lattice structure.

Most glassware that can be heated is also denser. According to the information found at www.desy.de/user/projects/Physics/General/Glass/glass.html, the denser the material the lower temperature it needs to cool at to become glass.

• Types of heated glassware

Pyrex is a type of glassware that can be heated to high temperatures. According to the information found it has boro silicates or alumina silicates which can withstand heating at a higher temperature.

If the heating capacity is low for glass it means it will break because the molecular structure will change. Glass from pure silica also has a high glass transition point at 1200 degrees C.

Glass with the minimum of 270 degrees C transition is not going to be able to be heated because it has a lower threshold to heat. As we mentioned, glass is a liquid that has been super cooled.

Given these properties you know that the less tolerance to heat it has the easier it is to break it apart. So as long as you remember that items like Pyrex have silicates that make them easier to heat then you will know what properties are important to have in glassware to make certain you can actually heat it.

• Heating capacity

The heating capacity is something mentioned above. Heating capacity is the temperature one can go to with a material like Glassware to make it pliable. It is what you could consider the capacity the molecule can reach before its form will change.