Researchers clear way to stronger glass
IN THE kinds of glass that are available today, for applications such as windowpanes and lenses, the molecules inside the glass are in state of great disarray.
If the molecules were in a more organised state, the glass would be more stable and longer lasting. In the conventional method of making glass the glass ingredients are melted and allowed to cool down.
The cooling happens so fast that the molecules get stuck in disarray and the resulting glass is less stable and may degrade over time.
Now, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a new glass-making technique that eliminates some of that mess.
With the new technology, described in a study in Science, they created a novel glass that is stronger and more stable than glass made in traditional ways.
Aid to drug industry
Though not suitable to replace everyday products like windowpanes or eyeglasses, this new glass may allow pharmaceutical companies the opportunity to explore previously unusable drug compounds.
When considered at the molecular level, most solid materials can be described as either crystals or glasses, explains lead author Mark Ediger, a UW-Madison chemistry professor. In crystals, the molecules are all lined up like toy soldiers marching together. A glass is full of molecular disarray.
Ediger and his team, in collaboration with researchers in the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, designed a new technique that gives all the molecules a chance to arrange themselves a little more neatly, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison press release. Ediger and his team build glass layer by layer using a method called `vapour deposition.'
Glass is heated to the point of evaporation and allowed to condense on a cold surface, where the vapour forms an ultra-thin liquid film.
Adding layers
By adding layers to the surface one at a time, each sheet of particles can move into a more organized arrangement before solidifying. Though the new glasses do not reach the precision of crystals, they are denser and far stronger than traditional glass.
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