Ultra-strong Glass

In recent years, strength and reliability were identified as the bottleneck of further glass development for mass market applications. The fact that glasses break brittle turned out to be the major drawback of this otherwise fascinating material. Very recently, this consensus has sparked significant research efforts, addressing questions such as:§How do glasses break? Which effects occur on the nanoscopic and molecular levels? How can one, eventually, avoid fracture and improve reliability? How can historical glasses be protected or restored? Along with new observations and conclusions, novel (potential) applications have entered the focus, mainly on the fields of architecture, solar energy conversion, optical fiber, display and packaging. However, the field remains practically unharvested, and the strength of glass products is still ~ 50 times lower than their theoretical strength.§After giving extensive reviews on what is known about these issues today, the book will address the stated questions, focusing on new findings from materials science, condensed matter physics and chemistry, and translating these findings into new applications and strategies towards stronger glasses. In addition to this, the book will also relate present knowledge on the behavior of inorganic oxide glasses to bulk metallic glasses.