Tough-as-Steel Glass Breaks Mold

In Nature Scientific Reports, the boffins from the University of Tokyo and Japan’s Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute describe their oxide glass, which they reckon will also be useful in buildings and cars.

The glass – which has been described as “unbreakable” and “hard as steel” in a series of global headlines – is made through a time-intensive process involving aluminum oxide instead of the normal silica, according to the report of their creation.

Now, you can have sturdier windows and tableware.

The Asahi Shimbun claims the glass is twice as hard as traditional silica glass.

The scientists went around this problem by using a containerless processing technique.

Others have tried this before, but as soon as they added the alumina to the silicon dixoide inside a container, the mixture crystallized and glass didn’t form.

There’s plenty of work still to do to replicate these results on a larger scale, but the Japanese team of researchers is confident that the glass can be made even tougher in the future. “They crushed alumina and tantalum oxide powders together at high pressure, applied heat, and then they used oxygen gas to levitate their samples in air, melting them with two lasers”, chemist Carmen Drahl writes for Forbes.

This solid material has apparently been made from alumina, an oxide of aluminium.

“We will establish a way to mass-produce the new material shortly”, said Atsunobu Masuno, assistant professor for the University. The resulting material is transparent, colorless and very very tough, thanks to its 50 percent alumina content. “We are looking to commercialise the technique within five years”. Virtually unsearchable smartphone screens and bouncy beer bottles?