Glass but as elastic as plastic?

It is said that they developed a new glass material with plastic-like elasticity that is not shattered by impact, focusing on the structure of the pearl inside the shell. This glass material is expected to be used in smartphone displays in the future.

In order to increase the strength of glass, temper and resin are used to bond the glass together. However, such work was expensive and there was a problem that it had to be replaced because it could not repair the damage. McGill University’s research team has announced a new high-strength glass that solves this problem. The new glass is said to have three times the strength and five times the fracture toughness of ordinary glass.

As a new material inspired by pearls, nature is a design expert, and studying the structure of biological materials and understanding how they work will provide a new material spirituality and blueprint, he said. The pearl attached to the inside of the shell has two properties: durability, which can be obtained depending on the soft material, and stiffness, which can be obtained depending on the hard material. This is because pearls are made of a material that realizes hardness by layering a soft protein layer with high elasticity, so this structure has excellent strength.

The research team closely examined the structure of pearls and found that, in theory, glass with a similar structure could be mass-produced inexpensively and quickly by mixing glass fragments and acrylic. Although there was a problem in that the transparency of glass was reduced by this method, it is believed that the same transparency as conventional glass can be secured by adjusting the refractive index of acrylic.

The new glass is expected to be used in smartphone displays in the future. In addition, the research team plans to continue research to change the glass color production method and conductivity using smart technology in the future. Related information can be found here.