The relationships between materials processing and structure can vary between terrestrial and reduced gravity environments. As one case study, we compare the nonequilibrium melt processing of a rare-earth titanate, nominally 83TiO₂-17Nd₂O₃, and the structure of its glassy and crystalline products. Density and thermal expansion for the liquid, supercooled liquid, and glass are measured over 300–1850 °C using the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF) in microgravity, and two replicate density measurements were reproducible to within 0.4%. Cooling rates in ELF are 40–110 °C s⁻¹ lower than those in a terrestrial aerodynamic levitator due to the absence of forced convection. X-ray/neutron total scattering and Raman spectroscopy indicate that glasses processed on Earth and in microgravity exhibit similar atomic structures, with only subtle differences that are consistent with compositional variations of ~2 mol. % Nd₂O₃. The glass atomic network contains a mixture of corner- and edge-sharing Ti-O polyhedra, and the fraction of edge-sharing arrangements decreases with increasing Nd₂O₃ content. X-ray tomography and electron microscopy of crystalline products reveal substantial differences in microstructure, grain size, and crystalline phases, which arise from differences in the melt processes.

材料加工和结构之间的关系在陆地环境和低重力环境中可能会有所不同。作为一个案例研究，我们比较了稀土钛酸盐（名义上为 83TiO ₂ -17Nd ₂ O ₃）的非平衡熔融加工及其玻璃状和结晶产品的结构。在微重力条件下使用静电悬浮炉 (ELF) 在 300–1850 °C 范围内测量液体、过冷液体和玻璃的密度和热膨胀，两次重复密度测量的重复性在 0.4% 以内。由于缺乏强制对流，ELF 中的冷却速率比地面空气动力悬浮器低 40–110 °C s ^{-1 。}X 射线/中子总散射和拉曼光谱表明，在地球上和微重力下加工的玻璃表现出相似的原子结构，只有细微的差异，与约 2 mol 的成分变化一致。％Nd ₂ O ₃。玻璃原子网络包含共角和共边Ti-O多面体的混合物，并且共边排列的比例随着Nd ₂ O ₃含量的增加而减少。结晶产品的 X 射线断层扫描和电子显微镜揭示了由于熔化过程的差异而导致的微观结构、晶粒尺寸和晶相的显着差异。