Can you imaginestronger and more resistant glass than steel? This is what American scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have just created. In fact, in the first tests in the laboratory thenew metallic glasshas proven to bethe hardest and most resistant materialknown to date.
To achieve this, the scientists used a micro-alloy that includespalladium, a rare metal that is characterized by its high rigidity and excellent resistance conditions, which makes it possible to counteract the intrinsic fragility of glass materials. In this way, it gives the new glass an unusual resistance capacity, preventing the cracks from spreading. As a result,glass increases its plasticity under stress, allowing it to bend rather than break.
In addition to palladium, the new material includesphosphorus, silicon, germanium and silver, which allow to reach a thickness of up to six millimeters. By using five elements, each one of which tries to crystallize in its own way, finally “they do not know which crystalline structure to form and they remain amorphous,” according to Robert Ritchie, co-author of the study published in the journal.Nature Materials.
“Traditionally resistance and strength were mutually exclusive propertiesin materials, which explains why these metallic crystals are so intellectually exciting, “adds Ritchie.
