A base glass of composition 3.5 Li2O center dot 0.15 Na2O center dot 0.2 K2O center dot 1.15 MgO center dot 0.8 BaO center dot 1.5 ZnO center dot 20 Al2O3 center dot 67.2 SiO2 center dot 2.6 TiO2 center dot 1.7 ZrO2 center dot 1.2 As2O3 (in wt.%), melted and provided by SCHOTT AG (Mainz), was used to study the crystallisation mechanism of lithium alumino-silicate glass employing X-ray diffraction combined with neutron diffraction and non-isothermal differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). A high-quartz solid solution of LiAlSi2O6 with nanoscaled crystals forms at 750 degrees C. Quantitative Rietveld refinement of samples annealed at 750 degrees C for 8 h determined a crystallised fraction of around 59 wt.%. The room temperature crystallised phase adopts an ordered, beta-eucryptite-like structure (2 x 2 x 2 cell) with Li ordered in the structural channels. The Avrami parameter (n similar to 4), calculated from DSC data using different theoretical approaches, indicates that bulk crystallisation occurs and that the number of nuclei increases during annealing. The activation energy of the crystallisation is 531 +/- 20 kJ mol(-1). (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.