Soon enough, you might not have to worry about shattering the glass on your iPhone, tablet, or whatever glass-encased gadget you have on you.
A team of scientists from the University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science has just created a new form of "hybrid glass type," which has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Apparently, the glass is "as strong as steel and near-unbreakable." IFLScience reports:
"The new glass's 'strength' is described by its ability to be non-permanently deformed by external stress, caused by something like a bring being thrown at it. This measure - which material scientists call the elastic modus - for this new glass type is found to be comparable to that of steel. The glass has also been made to be incredibly 'hard,' another measure of strength; essentially, it is rather difficult to scratch this new material.
"This is no coincidence: the glass contains aluminum oxide compounds, which are renowned for their toughness. The Al2O3 version of the aluminum oxide group is actually the mineral corundum, a compound that is second only to diamonds on the Moh's scale of hardness."
The extraordinary properties of the "alumina" mixtures - the specific aluminum oxides - have been known for quite a while now, but the chemistry necessary for them to be added onto glass has been a challenge for scientists.
Apparently, whenever material scientists attempted to mix the alumina with glass, a container had always been used. Turns out, the liquid alumina mixture ends up crystallizing on the corners and edges of the container before it had any chance of properly combining with the glass.
To solve the problem, the Japanese scientists "levitated the mixture of glass and alumina into the air using oxygen gas." Carbon dioxide lasers were also used to melt the substances together in order to create the new 50% alumina glass.
"We are looking to commercialize the technique within five years," said University of Tokyo assistant professor Atsunobu Masuno - also a co-author on the paper - told Asahi Shimbun.
