Borosilicate glass vs Glass-ceramic
Borosilicate glass and Glass-ceramic are genuine alternatives to one another — a choice somebody actually makes — and differ on 2 measured properties, density most clearly.
Borosilicate glass vs Glass-ceramic
Borosilicate glass
Glass with boron in it, which barely changes size when heated — the reason an oven dish does not shatter and a drinking glass does.
Glass-ceramic
Glass made and then deliberately crystallised — a material that can be shaped like glass and then made to behave like a ceramic.
| Property | Borosilicate glass | Glass-ceramic |
|---|---|---|
| Density | 2.2–2.25 g/cm³ | 2.5–2.6 g/cm³ higher |
| Refractive index Only one of the two has a figure we can stand behind, so there is nothing to compare. | 1.47 | Not known |
| Thermal conductivity | 1.1–1.2 W/(m·K) | 1.5–2 W/(m·K) higher |
Choosing between them
Glass-ceramic is recorded as a substitute for Borosilicate glass — better at temperature, stronger.
What it gives up: Opaque, so anywhere the point is seeing through it this is not the answer.
In this application, on the evidence cited above.