How to Turn any Material into the Glass? New Technology

Scientists from the Universities of Bristol and Dusseldorf have discovered a new way of making glass by controlling the position of the atoms in the material structure.

Glass is a special state of matter: it has the mechanical properties of the solid and amorphous structure of the liquid. Back in 1952, Sir Charles Frank of the University of Bristol argued that the structure of the glass is not completely disordered like a liquid, but rather, it should be filled with structural features such as a square anti-prism.

Although these structural features and have recently been found in experiments with computer simulations of glassy materials, still it was not clear what role they play in the transformation of the liquid in the glass.

Working with a virtual model, British and German scientists have created a new type of glass: made of nickel-phosphorus alloy to form special polyhedra, which ultimately deprived fluid flow and turned it into a glass. In other words, scientists have found a way to create glass is by cooling the melt, and the change in the structure of the material. Thus, manipulating the structures of various shapes, you can convert the liquid to a solid or molten glass with the desired properties.

New technology allows you to control the substance, keeping it in a liquid state or in making glass with programmed properties.This allows you to create a completely new product, for example, points to the metallic glass – light and very strong. In addition, opportunities are opening up for the production of chalcogenide glass, which can be a very reliable and durable storage media.

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Posted by Paracha on November 23, 2012. Filed under Articles, Innovation, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.