You reach for a glass of water, but it slips from your hands and crashes to the floor, scattering shards everywhere. If only the glass were unbreakable. Fortunately, researchers have made significant progress toward this goal by discovering important information about how glass can become more fracture-resistant.
You reach for a glass of water, but it slips from your hands and crashes to the floor, scattering shards everywhere. If only the glass were unbreakable. Fortunately, researchers have made significant progress toward this goal by discovering important information about how glass can become more fracture-resistant.
We have all felt the adrenaline rush when a glass slips from our grip, shattering upon impact with the ground. Imagine if such a common accident could be eliminated!
Recently, researchers at Tohoku University made a breakthrough that sheds light on how glass can resist breakage, potentially leading to the creation of highly durable, shatter-proof materials. This discovery could significantly impact various industries that rely on glass.
The findings were detailed in the journal Acta Materialia on December 2, 2024.
“While glass is inherently strong, it can easily break when subjected to excessive stress. However, the movement of atoms and molecules within the glass can alleviate internal stress, enhancing the material’s fracture resistance,” explains Makina Saito, an associate professor at Tohoku University’s Graduate School of Science. “Although we know certain atoms can ‘jump’ into adjacent empty spaces, the mechanism behind how this process reduces stress has remained unclear.”
Saito and his team, which included researchers from Kyoto University, Shimane University, the National Institute for Materials Science, and the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute, discovered a new process of stress relaxation in ionic glass, which served as their experimental model.
Their study employed advanced synchrotron radiation techniques and computer simulations to track atomic movement in glass over very short time frames, from nanoseconds to microseconds.
The researchers found that when some atoms ‘jump’ into nearby vacant spaces, clusters of surrounding atoms gradually shift to occupy the gaps. This interaction between atomic jumps and collective movements decreases internal stress, thereby enhancing the material’s ability to withstand breakage from external forces.
“Our findings have extensive implications for fields such as consumer electronics, construction, and automotive industries, where resilient glass products are crucial,” Saito notes.
Moving forward, the research team intends to investigate whether similar atomic mechanisms are present in various glass types. Their ultimate aim is to develop universal principles for creating glass with improved impact resistance, which could transform the use of durable materials across many applications.
